Highly trained medics, scientists in UK to examine impact of Covid-19 on human body
Highly trained medics, scientists in UK to examine impact of Covid-19 on human body
The study will help scientists to understand how the immune system reacts to the virus that causes Covid-19.
advertisement
Photo for representation
The world s first Covid-19 human trials to study the impact of the deadly virus on a healthy body’s immune system will begin in the UK.
The initial study is intended to help scientists understand how the immune system reacts to the virus that causes Covid-19, and identify factors that influence how it is transmitted, including how a person who is infected “sheds” infectious virus particles into the environment.
Thursday 18 February 2021
Since England’s third national lockdown began in January 2021, Jake Hopkins has been taking extra precautions when he goes to work as a customer assistant at a supermarket in Tamworth, Staffordshire. He’s nervous about catching Covid-19 – not so much because of the risk it may pose to his health, but because it would mean he would miss the opportunity to be deliberately infected with the virus as part of a world-first “human challenge” study that got the go-ahead this week.
During the first lockdown he wasn’t so bothered. “Obviously I was nervous about catching it, but working there was fine; it’s one of the hazards of the job,” he says. “You don’t want to catch it because you don’t want to catch it, but I wasn’t scared of catching it for any other reason. Whereas now, I’m hyper-conscious, I wear three masks, because obviously if I catch it then I can’t take part in the trial.”
The Day - U K gets approval to infect healthy volunteers in world s first coronavirus challenge trial theday.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theday.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.