The UK launches a new "human challenge test" for the new coronavirus

Xinhua News Agency, London, April 19 (Reporter Zhang Jiawei Jin Jing) The University of Oxford, UK, announced on the 19th that scholars from the university have launched a new “human challenge test” for the new coronavirus to analyze in-depth what immune response can people avoid Re-infection and how the immune system functions during a second infection.

According to reports, the "Human Challenge Test" plan is conducted in two phases.

The first phase of the trial will investigate and clarify the minimum viral load that allows the virus to reinfect these volunteers and begin to replicate but cause only mild or asymptomatic symptoms.

The second phase of the trial is expected to begin this summer.

Helen McShane, a professor at the University of Oxford who led the trial, said that the "human challenge test" is strictly controlled.

In addition to the Oxford University test, Imperial College London has previously announced a new coronavirus "human challenge test" plan, but this plan does not specifically recruit volunteers who have been infected with the virus.