Medical researchers sign open letter calling for COVID-19 human challenge trials

A July 15 open letter urging the National Institutes of Health to begin conducting human challenge trials for COVID-19 vaccine candidates garnered signatures from 125 prominent academics and more than 2,000 volunteers for participation in such trials.

The letter, addressed to National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, MD, PhD, is calling for vaccine trials in which volunteers would be intentionally infected with the novel coronavirus to test if the vaccine works. This is different from the way COVID-19 vaccine trials are currently being executed, in which participants simply go about their everyday lives after receiving the vaccine while researchers wait to see whether they get infected.