Coronavirus Drug and Vaccine Studies Are Recruiting Their First Volunteers In Nebraska and Washington

TIME ^ | 03/10/2020 | Alice Park

[SeekAndFind]

As COVID-19 continues to spread both around the world and in the U.S., two separate efforts to find a medical solution to the virus are moving forward. At the University of Nebraska, the first patients have volunteered to test an experimental drug to treat COVID-19. And at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, researchers have begun recruiting people to test a possible vaccine.

A number of U.S. passengers aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship were brought to Nebraska for quarantine; two of these passengers have agreed to participate in a trial for remdesivir, an antiviral drug originally developed for Ebola, but which showed encouraging results in animals in fighting SARS and MERS, two other illnesses caused by coronaviruses.

The drug is designed to treat infections that are moderate to severe, and is targeted to those with the most intensive symptoms. In order to qualify for the remdesivir study, run by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), patients must test positive for COVID-19 and have pneumonia. Of the more than two dozen people diagnosed with COVID-19 from the cruise ship who were brought to Nebraska for quarantine, four required hospitalization and two developed pneumonia. Those two patients were asked if they wanted to volunteer for the study, and both agreed, says Dr. Andre Kalil, professor of medicine in the division of infectious disease at University of Nebraska Medical Center.

The study will eventually include 400 patients; initial results won’t be analyzed until the first 100 have completed treatment. Given the relatively low rate of moderately to severely affected patients in the US at this point, Kalil says that NIAID plans to collaborate with health officials from other countries with higher case volumes, including Korea, Japan and Italy. For now, the trial will stay open for three years

[ProtectOurFreedom]

The UK is using a different approach to recruiting people...

Get PAID to have coronavirus: Scientists in London will pay volunteers £3,500 to be infected in experiments to develop a vaccine for the deadly virus

[Oldeconomybuyer]

I encourage AOC to apply.

[null and void]

That’s about $4,500.00 US.

[Pollard]

Must by why they keep letting people fly in from Italy, SK etc. Need more guinea pigs for big pharma so they can get a chunk of that $8.3 billion.

[zeugma]

[CharlesWayneCT]

My son was talking about flying to England to take part.

First, he figures he’s young and healthy, and very low risk.

Second, he figures that, no matter what else, he’ll be “vaccinated” for it, since he’ll have had it.

Third, if he gets sick, he will get very high-quality care, immediately, so he’ll likely recover.

Fourth, 3500 pounds and an all-expenses paid trip to England.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Wow...brave lad.

“high-quality care” — are you SURE about that? I read that England has 1/7 of the ventilators per capita as the United States. Of course, they are going to make sure these experimental patients get the best care.