Approximately 1,500 Americans, most of them young, have expressed their desire to intentionally become infected in Corona - to help develop a vaccine for the virus.

One day before: Many young people in the United States have started to register on a site looking for volunteers to get infected in Corona to develop a vaccine for the disease, the prestigious Nature magazine reported yesterday.

Corona vaccine enters human experiment // Photo: Reuters

The organization, reportedly one day earlier, is looking for people who are willing to be infected with the disease deliberately to test the effectiveness of the vaccine. The goal is to shorten normal human research times, where usually one group gets vaccinated and another group gets a placebo - and the infection occurs naturally. 

The organization is trying to promote an idea of ​​a different type of trial that has previously been tested for malaria and influenza, in which all participants receive a vaccine and are then deliberately infected with the disease, with the aim of testing the effectiveness of the vaccine. Project organizers hope this method will be faster and will pave the way for a vaccine to be distributed to the general public.

"We want to recruit as many people as possible and choose the most suitable one as soon as there is a vaccine ready for the experiment," explained Josh Morrison, who heads the organization. Morrison noted that to date, about 1,500 people have been interested in participating in the experiment - most of them young from urban settings. "Many have stated that they are aware of the dangers of the process, but believe the importance of rapid development of a vaccine for a disease is higher than the risk."

Despite the enthusiasm, senior executives in the pharmaceutical industry have already begun discussing the idea, especially on the ethical side. Charlie Waller, head of the vaccine department at the Wellcome Institute in London, said it was unclear whether the procedure would really speed up the vaccine development process. "I think there is potential for the move, but there are a lot more questions to see if it will help our schedule," Waller said.