Curing coronavirus: Volunteers to be injected with COVID-19 to help find vaccine
Some 13,000 people from 100 different countries have signed up to participate in the "human challenge trials."
SAN FRANCISCO -- Founders of the program 1 Day Sooner, a group comprised of scientists and researchers, hope to be purposefully infected with novel coronavirus, along with other volunteers to help search for a vaccine.
Some 13,000 people from 100 different countries have already signed up to participate in the initiative.
Josh Morrison is a Brooklyn attorney and executive director at Waitlist Zero, an advocacy group for living organ donors.
Carson Poltorack is a recent Stanford graduate and soon-to-be medical student at University of Pennsylvania.
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Both are part of the core 1 Day Sooner team. They spoke with KGO-TV in a Skype interview.
They explained their mission of conducting a "human challenge trial," which according to their website, "deliberately exposes participants to infection, in order to study diseases and test vaccines or treatments."
The FDA has already granted emergency use authorization of remdesivir, to treat severely ill patients in the hospital, but Josh and Carson are searching for something more effective.
"Researchers are exploring whether human challenge trials could speed up the development of a vaccine for COVID-19, saving thousands or even millions of lives," the website says.
