Researchers Debate “Challenge Trials” For Vaccines

The New York Times reports:

One way to quickly see if a coronavirus vaccine works would be to immunize healthy people and then deliberately expose them to the virus, some researchers are suggesting.

Proponents say this strategy, called a human challenge trial, could save time because rather than conducting tests the usual way — by waiting for vaccinated people to encounter the virus naturally — researchers could intentionally infect them.

Challenge trials have been used to test vaccines for typhoid, cholera, malaria and other diseases. But there were so-called rescue medicines to cure those who got sick. There is no cure for Covid-19.

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