They want to take part in a “human challenge trial,” an ethically controversial vaccine test that infects people with a virus does not yet have a cure.
A scientist works in the lab at Moderna in Cambridge, Mass. on Feb. 28, 2020.David L. Ryan / Boston Globe via Getty Images
By Kit Ramgopal
Imagine being told to inhale a nasal spray full of coronavirus. More than 14,000 people in the U.S. and elsewhere are putting their names forward to do so.
They are volunteering for what’s called a “human challenge trial,” an ethically controversial way to test vaccines that would deliberately infect people with a virus that has killed over 270,000 people worldwide and has no cure.
“It’s not every day we give a healthy individual an exposure to a pathogen — the very same thing doctors are trying to protect people from,” said Dr. Nir Eyal, director of…
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