5 ms·
I understand how controversial this may be of a proposal at first glance, but wasn't it be possible to recruit the terminally ill or the euthanasia requestors f
by cromka 6y ago
I understand how controversial this may be of a proposal at first glance, but wasn't it be possible to recruit the terminally ill or the euthanasia requestors for the early trials and actually intentionally infect the ~~non-control group~~ both groups with a virus to speed up the process?
I, for one, can imagine that if I was ill but had a way to help the humanity before my inevitable departure, I'd be more than happy to do so, maybe even giving some purpose to all the suffering, after all.
From a moral perspective, I don't see this much of a different problem from the human organ transplantation – except the donation here is of an immune system itself. And while we're at it, wouldn't the organ donors be feasible candidates for such testing, too? I understand that the organ damage or removal could skew the results, but likely not by yielding a false-positive on the vaccine's efficacy?
- yen223 6y agoIf a terminally-ill patient takes the vaccine, and then subsequently dies, what conclusions should you draw from that?
- monkeydreams 6y agoWell you could determine if they died from anaphylaxis or other acute immunological response. That would be the first step. You can also determine if the patient suddenly develops symptoms (arterial hardening, strange clotting, etc) that are not in line with their current disease.
- cromka 6y agoWith all respect, this is glass half-empty mentality and a necessity vs sufficiency bias. The idea at this point is to take the risk and hopefully obtain meaningful results. If the vaccine causes side effects with terminally-ill, then you have proof that it needs further evaluation and the sufficient condition is not met. If the vaccine, however, doesn't cause side effects and is proven efficient, it yeilds a sufficient result thus reducing the trial length, saving millions.
- wonderfool 6y agoSimilar to how retired/elderly engineers in Japan volunteered to perform on-site remediation work during the Fukushima nuclear crisis? https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-13598607 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-13598607
- cromka 6y agoIndeed similarly, although they explain in the article that it is unlikely that the retirees would develop cancer by they time they died of natural causes, so the level of sacrifice is different.
- Trasmatta 6y agoYes, and there was a large group of volunteers pushing for exactly this.
- cromka 6y agoAs in to actually sign up to be infected?