Volunteers in the UK could get up to £3,500 as payment to be infected with the coronavirus as researchers vaccine for the disease.
The Times UK reports that scientists in London are offering to pay up to 24 people at a time to get infected with a less harmful form of COVID-19 as part of a vaccine experiment.
According to the report, the volunteers will be infected with two strains of the disease that cause mild respiratory illness, and will be monitored by doctors in protective gear regularly while in quarantine for two weeks.
According to John Oxford, a professor in virology at the Queen Mary University of London, participants will feel symptoms like a cough or cold, which would model those of COIVID-19.
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“If it works on our little virus, it is very likely to work in the real world,” Oxford was quoted to have said, adding that the volunteers will be screened to ensure they don’t already have antibodies.
Andrew Catchpole, Hvivo’s chief scientist, also spoke about the project, saying “we’ve actually all been exposed to many coronaviruses, which means we could have some underlying immunity to it.”
