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The Nobel laureates are among scientists who ask for volunteers to be exposed to the coronavirus after receiving a vaccine to see if it offers protection.
In an open letter to the head of the US National Institutes of Health, the group says so-called “challenge trials” could accelerate vaccine development.
The director of the Covid-19 vaccine program at the University of Oxford said such studies should be “feasible and informative.”
There are now 23 coronavirus vaccines in clinical trials worldwide.
The only way we will know if any of them work is if enough volunteers are subsequently exposed to the coronavirus in their daily lives and are not infected.
That could go well until next year, given that many studies are being done in countries where infection rates are declining.
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The 1 Day Sooner organization, which consists of more than 100 prominent figures, including 15 Nobel laureates, argues that this should not be left to chance.
He wants healthy young volunteers to receive coronaviruses deliberately after receiving the vaccine, arguing that the risks to their health would be low, but the potential benefits to society are enormous.
The letter says: “If challenge trials can safely and effectively speed up the vaccine development process, then there is a formidable presumption in favor of its use, which would require a very compelling ethical justification to overcome it.”
The letter of support for the challenge trials has been signed by Professor Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, which has one of the main prototype coronavirus vaccines.
He said human challenge studies could occur “in the coming months.”
Dr. Francis Collins, NIH director, said the Covid-19 challenge tests are “on the table for discussion, not on the table to start designing a plan.”
