The Queen Mary BioEnterprises Innovation Centre in London will be recruiting 24 people for a study that will try to find a vaccine for the COVID-19.
Volunteers will be paid £3,500 if they want to participate
The centre explains that the volunteers will be injected with two weaker strains of this deadly virus which has taken away the lives of 3,800 people globally.
Then, a jab developed by Hvivo will be tested and the infected patients will be quarantined for two weeks to see what happens.
Scientists Are already Working on Potential Vaccines
Around 35 other vaccines for the virus are under development and the government of UK has promised £46 million in the fight against the virus.
But, according to some experts, a vaccine is unlikely to be approved timely and cease the current pandemic.
Before the study begins, the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency will have to agree.
Hvivo Company announced their plans after a male in his 60s became the third death in the UK caused by the virus. In the UK, there are at least 280 confirmed cases.
Boris Johnson called ministers to have an emergency meeting to talk about the country’s response to the pandemic.
You Will Get £3,500 to Get the COVID-19
Those who will decide to volunteer and get injected with the virus will get paid.
But, to get their paycheck, they will also need to remain in quarantine for two weeks and follow a specific set diet.
They can’t have contact with anyone and can’t exercise.
The team will assess their responses to the vaccine wearing protective clothing as well as ventilators.
This test is part of the $2 billion global effort to find a viable coronavirus vaccine since Europe has been dealing with a massive increase in infected patients in the past two weeks.
Vaccine Development for COVID-19 in the West
In Seattle, researchers have also started recruiting healthy people to participate in a trial for a vaccine that will be developed by the Moderna Therapeutics biotech company.
The vaccine trial is expected to start at the end of April and will require 14 months; however, there, the volunteers don’t need to be in quarantine.
They will also be paid $1,100.
Developing Treatments for Diseases Takes Time
Developing treatments for diseases requires years since they need to be properly researched in several phases.
And, usually thousands of people have to participate in these phases in order to monitor the treatments’ safety, effectiveness, and tolerability in people.
And, even if they’re found helpful, they need to be made on a large scale and this requires billions of dollars and regulatory vettings.
This being said, the vaccines for COVID-19 are unlikely to be ready in time to cease the current outbreak. More than 100 countries in the world have reported COVID-19 cases.
What Is the COVID-19 & How Does It Manifest?
Currently, what’s known is that a person who has the virus can spread it through a simple sneeze or a cough.
This type of virus can cause disease in people and animals. The viruses break into cells inside the host and use them to reproduce and disrupt the normal bodily functions.
The virus is named after the Latin word corona which means crown since the cells are encased in a spiked shell that resembles a crown.
Before the outbreak in Wuhan, the virus has never been seen before.
Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that impact numerous species, including humans, cattle, dogs, cats, wild animals, chicken, and pigs.
Before COVID-19, there were only 6 coronaviruses known to impact humans.
4 of them cause mild cold-like disease, but as of 2002, two new have appeared- they can affect humans and cause serious illness, that is, SARS and MERS.
The virus almost certainly came from bats, claim scientists.
The coronaviruses tend to originate from animals. Similarly, SARS and MERS are believed to have started in civet cats and camels, respectively.
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