Was listening to a podcast the other day where they were explaining the concept of a "challenge trial" for a vaccine.
My understanding is that with a typical vaccine trial, they inject you and then send you off into the world and see if you get infected. The problem with doing that for a Covid vaccine is that, particularly with social distancing and masking in place, it might take too long to generate results. So instead they do a "challenge trial", which is highly unusual and borderline unethical: Inject the subject with the vaccine, and then directly expose them to the virus. (I may have some of these details wrong, but this is all a hypothetical so just go with it for now.)
Assuming that's the scenario, would you be willing to participate, and how much money would it take to get you to do so?
Arguing in favor, there's a decent chance that the vaccine will be effective and you won't get it at all, and if you do get it, you will know right away and presumably receive the best possible care, with no risk of spreading it to your family members. Plus, if you assume that most of us will get it eventually anyway, this gives you the opportunity to get it out of the way and likely have some level of immunity going forward. And I suppose for the public-spirited, there's the benefit of contributing to a project that may end up saving hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide.
Arguing against ... well, there's the fact that you would be knowingly exposing yourself to a potentially deadly virus. I actually think there's an element of the Trolley Problem here. It's one thing to know you may eventually get the virus. It's another to affirmatively take steps to make it happen.
Anyway, curious to hear other's thoughts.
My understanding is that with a typical vaccine trial, they inject you and then send you off into the world and see if you get infected. The problem with doing that for a Covid vaccine is that, particularly with social distancing and masking in place, it might take too long to generate results. So instead they do a "challenge trial", which is highly unusual and borderline unethical: Inject the subject with the vaccine, and then directly expose them to the virus. (I may have some of these details wrong, but this is all a hypothetical so just go with it for now.)
Assuming that's the scenario, would you be willing to participate, and how much money would it take to get you to do so?
Arguing in favor, there's a decent chance that the vaccine will be effective and you won't get it at all, and if you do get it, you will know right away and presumably receive the best possible care, with no risk of spreading it to your family members. Plus, if you assume that most of us will get it eventually anyway, this gives you the opportunity to get it out of the way and likely have some level of immunity going forward. And I suppose for the public-spirited, there's the benefit of contributing to a project that may end up saving hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide.
Arguing against ... well, there's the fact that you would be knowingly exposing yourself to a potentially deadly virus. I actually think there's an element of the Trolley Problem here. It's one thing to know you may eventually get the virus. It's another to affirmatively take steps to make it happen.
Anyway, curious to hear other's thoughts.
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