Thousands volunteer to be exposed to COVID 19 to help find vaccine

Transcript

Over 16,000 volunteers have signed up on 1 Day Sooner for a possible trial run of a future coronavirus vaccine.

And part of the trial includes volunteering to become infected with COVID-19.

It's part of what's known as a "human challenge" trial.

These volunteers will potentially put their lives on the line to potentially save months in the creation of the vaccine.

Unlike other vaccine trials, in a challenge trial, a group of volunteers would first be injected with a potential vaccine, and a second control group would be injected with a placebo.

After allowing sufficient time for the volunteers who got the vaccine to hopefully build immunities, all the volunteers are intentionally contaminated with the coronavirus.

Scientists over the challenge say the intention is to get some people sick.

They say it is risky and even potentially deadly.

But it also might be a quicker path to an actual vaccine.

Scientists say the chances of someone dying are extremely low since they are only selecting young, healthy adults.

But they say doesn't negate the fact that there are unknown risk involved and they don't know how the trial will turn out.

Scientists say the trial is now gaining interest from the World Health Organization.

So far the challenge vaccine trial is hypothetical but volunteers say they are ready if need be.

Posted - 5.14.20