The people who get paid to get sick

This isn't an advert! the subject was suggested by the team at 1DaySooner, but that's it: no money changed hands and no editorial control was given away.

Two bonus facts I couldn't fit in the main video:
😷 There are some challenge trials which require stronger quarantine protocols or negative-pressure rooms, but they're much more rare (and much more difficult to film)
🧻 The tissues that volunteers sneeze into have to be put into a separate bag, so they can be weighed

Camera by Jamie MacLeod
Edited by Julian Domanski

(you can find contact details and social links there too)

[TMWriting]

I used to do clinical trials (before I found a full-time job) and it always made me laugh so hard when the contracts specifically point out that they're paying you for your TIME and not paying you to be experimented on.

[johnchessant]

4:17 "do not use provided tissues for anything other than sneezing or blowing your nose"

[VTimmoni]

I literally owe people like this my life.

[Picobits]

Funnily enough, I applied to this exact clinical trial (FluCamp). They rejected me on account of being too healthy. I had the antibodies for everything they were testing...

[carriebartkowiak]

I know a lot of authors who would gladly go into this program, as long as they were permitted to keep working on their manuscripts.
A quiet, peaceful room without constant interruptions every five minutes from family and the siren's call of never-ending household chores? Usually they have to pay quite a lot of money at a local hotel for that.

[rickseiden]

£4, 000 - £4, 500 is a lot of money and could really help someone between jobs. Also, it's more than that. You don't have to pay the "cost of living" expenses like food or basic necessities while you're in there. I can really see this program as being appealing to people who need some money in a very bad way.

[Koopaperson]

Tom could put anything in a title, add (For science) and then legitimately explain why it’s for science

[TomScottGo]

I would like to clarify that when I said "great content" at the start, I meant it ironically. No-one's work should ever have to be referred to as "content".

[ciclon]

so. let me get this straight:
im paid. and i am also given a private room, for a few weeks, with food, treats, a tv, a ps4, and all i have to do is, get the flu.. and its also for the good of medicine as a whole.. as long as its fully concensual, i have no ethical complains with this, hell if i am healthy enough i might volunteer myself to do this, worst case scenario there is an entire team of highly skilled medics ready to tend to me if things go south.

[keyholes]

From an immunosuppressed person: Thank you. You are a crucial part of life-saving work.

[Sergeantmajormario]

Me at the start of this video: "Oh lord... I can't imagine people doing that..."
Dr Andrew Catchpole "People are compensated for their time here, usually £4, 000"
Me: a couple of weeks, huh?"

Edit: people in my replies talking about the differences in the salaries. I'm an unemployed Brit, so that's nearly a years worth of Universal Credit for just 2 weeks

[retrojournalist]

To all people who are part of this: you have my respect.

[Zveebo]

£4k for two week in what looks likes a pretty comfortable environment really isn’t too bad at all, even if it does involve getting ill for a bit. And you’re doing your bit to help advance medical science 👍

[oakenshadow]

Wow. I never knew this was a thing. Awesome. Thank you to everyone who does this. I worked in a grocery store all through Covid. I risked my life with far less compensation.

[Pehmokettu]

This reminds me of one Finnish research project where you got a free trip to Benin (a country in Africa) and you were free to do anything in the area but if you got diarrhea then you had to poo in a plastic bag and call a researcher to pick up the diarrhea sample for the experiment. They were researching ways to prevent and cure diarrhea.

[StefandeJong]

I've volunteered for drug trials 4 times so far. Always super professional, super nice medical personnel - and the people you're staying with is generally a very good time as well. Kept a few friends from those trials.

[danawhite]

I love that Tom gets to travel the world, dropping knowledge for all of us.

[rafielk]

2:26 at least the researchers have a sense of irony and comedy, offering sims 4 as one of the ps4 games when you are inside in quarantine

[soranuareane]

THANK YOU FOR DOING A VIDEO ON THIS!!! Voluntary trials like this are an immense asset to the medical industry for developing and testing vaccines. All vaccines must go through a similar process and these people are furthering our ability to develop and test vaccines.

[Sentinel-cclo]

£4, 000 to sit in a room and play Bloodborne for two weeks without seeing anyone? I did that for 4 months in 2020 for free.