UK is set to conduct the first COVID-19 human challenge trials (HCT)

The UK is set to conduct the first COVID-19 human challenge trials (HCT) within a month from now.

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 The UK government is spending £33.6 million for the trials, being conducted jointly by the government’s Vaccines Taskforce, Imperial College London, the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and the clinical company called hVIVO.

In this study, over 90 healthy volunteers between the ages of 18-30 will be deliberately exposed to small amounts of the virus in controlled settings, in order to test treatments and vaccines.

In this way, the participants are “challenged” by the virus.

This is not the same as standard vaccine clinical trials, where the vaccine is given to participants who have acquired the infection naturally.