How to ensure safety ethics?

The world's first new coronavirus "human challenge test" was launched in the UK a few days ago, and it is planned to recruit volunteers to "test the virus" for scientific research.

Chris Chiu, the chief researcher of the trial team and a clinical professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London, told The Paper ( that this trial is expected to determine immune markers, obtain virus shedding data, and screen Develop effective vaccines and antiviral drugs.

The "Human Challenge Test" of the new coronavirus is to allow healthy people to be infected with the new coronavirus, so as to help scientists understand how the immune system responds to the virus and determine the factors that affect the way the virus spreads.

Is the "human challenge test" necessary? Why choose young people as test subjects and what is the practical significance of fighting the epidemic? In the face of the potentially deadly new coronavirus, how does the human challenge test ensure the health and safety of volunteers? How will the experiment unfold?

On February 23, Qiu Kerang, a member of the research team of the "Human Challenge Test" of the New Coronavirus and the chief researcher of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London, responded to the paper reporters on the above-mentioned focus issues ( style="text-indent:2em"> Qiu Kerang's main research direction is the pathogenesis of respiratory virus infections and human protective immunity, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza and new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).

Qiu Kerang told The Paper ( that the new coronavirus "human challenge test" is still in the stage of looking for volunteers.

The trial will start "slowly and carefully", and the duration will depend on "the dose of virus required to cause infection in most participants.

Can the results of young people's trials represent a wider population?

On February 17, the British Imperial College issued a communiqué stating that the country's clinical trial ethics institution has approved a new coronavirus "human challenge trial" program and called on qualified volunteers to participate in this project.

The "Human Challenge Test" was funded by the British government of £33.

Once released, the test triggered controversy from all walks of life.

The "Human Challenge Test" used young volunteers aged 18 to 30 as the research object.

In this regard, Qiu Kerang made three explanations for The Paper ( First of all, determining the factors that protect the human body from the new coronavirus infection (i.

In addition, mild or asymptomatic infections among young people are the main driving force of the new coronary pneumonia pandemic.

Furthermore, he believes that selecting young people as test subjects can screen useful vaccines or drugs.

How to ensure the safety of participants?

Another focus of the "Human Challenge Test" is how to reduce the risks of the test and ensure the health and life safety of participants.

Qiu Kerang told The Paper ( that they will carefully screen volunteers among healthy young people aged 18-30 to ensure that they do not have other diseases or risk factors for serious infections.

According to him, the trial will start by "injecting as little virus as possible into a small group of participants.

The trial is planned to be carried out at the Royal Free Hospital, and trial participants will be continuously monitored by medical staff.
The research team will conduct a 12-month follow-up of participants to check their health and provide treatment for long-lasting symptoms.

Earlier, some media discussed that the £4,500 compensation was too high, which may affect the judgment of volunteers.
In this regard, Qiu Kerang said that the amount was based on the minimum wage standard in the United Kingdom, and that the study participants needed to spend 17 days in the hospital and receive multiple research visits.
He said the amount of compensation by the ethics committee will independently review and is considered appropriate.

"During the volunteer screening process, the research team will meet with the volunteers many times, sometimes as long as several hours.
Only after the volunteers fully understand the situation and the research team is convinced that they understand the meaning of participating in this trial, the volunteers will Be included in the study.
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Qiu Kerang said that they will announce all the research results, and the follow-up work is to test the new vaccine.