People intentionally infected the coronavirus and watched what happened. The results of the controversial study are revolutionary – Startitup

For the first time, scientists have deliberately infected young healthy people with coronavirus. Half of the study participants became infected and the tests revealed this fact after only two days. The scientific journal Nature, which is currently researching the study, informs about it.

According to the researchers, the results published on the Research Square server may help to further investigate vaccines, antivirals and the body’s immune responses to COVID-19.

Some suffered the consequences for half a year

The study, led by experts from the Royal University of London (ICL), involved 34 volunteers aged 18 to 30. The first participants were infected with only a very low dose of the virus, which corresponded to its approximate amount in one respiratory droplet. They were still exposed to the initial coronavirus strain that circulated in Britain in the summer of 2020.

The infection was then identified by PCR assays in 53 percent of participants. Most of them had only mild or no symptoms. Among the symptoms that most clearly manifested on the fifth day after the infection were, for example, sore throat, a stuffy nose, sneezing or loss of taste and smell. The fever was rare in the participants, and no one had a persistent cough.

It was the loss of taste and smell that occurred in 70 percent of those infected. This problem then persisted for some participants for more than half a year. The results of the study also suggest that antigen tests can reliably indicate the presence of the virus in humans after the first two days of infection. No one had a severe course of illness that required hospitalization.

The researchers closely monitored the changing levels of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the participants’ bodies from the very beginning of their illness to its end. According to researchers, the virus multiplied incredibly fast, with high levels remaining in the human body for an average of nine to twelve days.

This involved both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. The researchers also tried to understand why so many people did not become infected at all. Some of them had very low levels of the virus in their bodies during short periods. This suggests that their immune system was actively fighting the virus, explains study leader Christopher Chiu, a physician and scientist at ICL.

They received more than 5,000 euros for the study

In further studies, scientists will try to find the cause of this phenomenon. Researchers from the Dublin-based Open Orphan organization also took part in a British study launched in October 2020. The first participants were exposed to the virus in early 2021, after which they had to spend two weeks in strict hospital isolation.

They received £ 4,565 (€ 5,485) for participating in the research. Scientists have been conducting similar studies in humans for decades to study influenza, malaria and many other infections.

Some researchers have argued that conducting such studies with SARS-CoV-2 in the first months of a pandemic may accelerate the development of vaccines against the disease.

However, others considered it too risky at a time when little was known about coronavirus and its potential treatment, pointing to the risk to volunteers and the unethical life of the study.

The team plans to launch another study that will expose the vaccinated variant of the SARS-CoV-2 variant. Researchers will try to identify immune factors that protect people from infection after vaccination.

Source: TASR