Study will pay up to R$30,000 to infect volunteers with COVID-19

The Whitechapel Hotel in London will host a different group of guests in a study starting next year. For an amount ranging from 3,000 to 4,000 EGP (equivalent to about 23,000 R$ to 30,700 R$), volunteers will be infected with the COVID-19 virus to test their response to treatments and vaccines.

Information from the British newspaper telegraph. According to the report, this will be the first study of the challenge facing humans – as this type of research is known – with disease. The patients will be kept for about two weeks in the wards, which will be equipped with televisions and video games.

The test will be conducted by Open Orphan. According to the company’s website, volunteers cannot develop comorbidities and will be monitored 24 hours a day.

The company has already conducted this type of study using respiratory syncytial virus, which is one of the leading causes of death for children under one year of age in developed countries. In July of this year, Pfizer announced that a vaccine against the disease had 95% efficacy in Phase II trials — and the immunizing agent was the result of that research.

According to the article telegraphThis type of study is cheaper and faster than traditional studies, which can include up to 20,000 patients and take two to three years. The average human challenge test is 100 volunteers and takes about three months.

The research design has been in development for a year, and is awaiting approval by regulatory and ethical authorities. The company expects the procedure to begin in the second half of 2022.