RE: news12 Oct 2020 08:12
Claire Waddington, a clinical lecturer in the field of infectious diseases at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, believes: "The advantage of the controlled human infection model is that it allows us to accurately know when people are exposed to relevant pathogens, so that we can directly and accurately study the models used in the model. The response and protection of any vaccine to infection."
In fact, American and British scientists have been discussing or calling for the implementation of "human challenge tests" in the development of new crown vaccines for several months. Researchers from Rutgers University, Harvard University and other institutions published an article entitled "Human Challenge Research Accelerating Coronavirus Vaccine Licensing" in the American Journal of Infectious Diseases in May, saying that the controlled new coronavirus vaccine "human challenge test" It may shorten the time spent on vaccine evaluation and enable the vaccine to be promoted earlier.
The article suggests that most of the new crown vaccines can be subject to "human challenge tests" before they are ready to enter the effectiveness test. In addition to evaluating the effects of vaccines, the "human challenge test" can also help evaluate drugs used to prevent infection before exposure to high-risk individuals, stop infection after exposure, or prevent the onset of disease, and enhance the understanding of related mechanisms from infection to disease .
In mid-July, more than 170 American and British scientists, including 15 Nobel Prize winners in science, jointly issued an open letter to Francis Collins, President of the National Institutes of Health, urging the US government to prepare for the "human challenge test", including supporting safety Reliable new coronavirus cultivation and isolation facilities for subjects.
Is it against ethics
The history of the "Human Challenge Test" can be traced back to 1796, when the pioneer of vaccine research, Edward Jenner, vaccinated 8-year-old James Phips with live vaccinia virus. This risky method made the little boy a miracle. Like immunity. Since then, this kind of "testing the virus" research has played an active role in developing vaccines and treatments against infectious diseases such as typhoid fever, cholera, and malaria, and understanding how the human immune system responds to viruses such as influenza.
Although there have been many precedents, the "human challenge test" is still a highly controversial research method, especially for the new coronavirus, a virus with a certain fatality rate and no specific drugs and treatments. Is it a violation of "testing the virus with the body" Medical ethics?
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