Scientists from the University of Oxford plan to reinfect volunteers who have already gotten the Covid-19 virus. This is the second UK clinical to study the deliberate Covid-19 infection in quarantine, this time of course, with people who have previously recovered from the virus.
These types of “human challenge” trials are very controversial, given that it means deliberately infecting healthy humans a virus. And even though they recovered once, it could be potentially dangerous to the health of these patients. Researchers say that so far, the UK is the only country conducting these types of trials with Covid-19.
According to researchers, the purpose of the trial is to form a better understanding of protection from previous illness that can help fast-track new treatments and vaccines. The new trial is focused on probing of human immunity and the effects of the virus on the body when it is reinfected.
The first study was led by Imperial College of London infectious-disease researchers. According to the Wall Street Journal, they received a pledge of more than $45 million from the UK government. This first study started in March with a handful of volunteers which were isolated inside London’s Royal Free Hospital.
For this second trial, as many as 64 people ranging from the ages of 18 to 30 years old, will be quarantined inside Oxford University Hospitals at roughly 17-days intervals. The volunteers of the study must be unvaccinated and have Covid-19 antibodies from a previous infection, but be fully recovered and be able to pass a full health screening. According to the Daily Mail, volunteers will receive up to £5,000 to take part in the study.
Critics against this type of human trial argue that the risks in the process are not justified, given the apparent success of the vaccines available. They also say that the new variants of the virus make the old strain that will be used in the UK trials less relevant. Challenge proponents, on the other hand, say that there is no substitute for the precision of controlled studies.
Prof. Helen McShane, of the University of Oxford, told journalists in a briefing last week, “We don’t know whether someone has not been infected because they haven’t been exposed or [because] they have protective immunity.” Controlling exposure will help with those questions, she said.
