A team of researchers in the UK are planning on conducting a controversial experience. They will be intentionally infecting people with Covid-19. The study is still awaiting final regulatory approval. If given the green light, the plan is to recruit healthy people between the ages of 18 and 30 with no prior history of COVID-19 symptoms and no known risk factors for the disease. NPR Reports.
The experiment is being conducted by Imperial College London. The first part of the experiment will focus on finding out how much of the virus someone will need to be exposed to in order to develop Covid-19. They are also trying to find out whether being exposed to a higher amount of the virus will cause a more severe illness.
There are other organizations that are planning on intentionally infecting people with Covid 19. One of those organizations is the US National Institute of Allergy And Infectious Diseases. They are currently working on two virus strains in a lab. Furthermore, a team of researchers in Belgium are working on a similar experiment.
One of the advantages of purposely infecting people with Covid-19 is that you do not have to wait for people to get infected with it naturally. However, this technique is still controversial. Peter Openshaw is the co-investigator of the study. He works at Imperial College London.
Peter stated that deliberately infecting people with a virus is not something that should be taken lightly. However, these types of studies also allow people to learn a lot more about the disease. The study is expected to start in early 2021. The researchers have not not stated what treatments will be used in the experiment.
Last Updated on 11/13/2020 by Emmanuel Motelin
