4 ms·

Interesting, although the study seems to raise as many questions as it does answers. https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1121993/v1 https://www.researchsq

Interesting, although the study seems to raise as many questions as it does answers. https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1121993/v1 https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1121993/v1 Edit: changed 'more' to 'as many' to remove negative connotation

peteradio 5y ago
What questions come to mind? I was surprised by the high percent who lost smell, I'd have thought that was closer to ~20% or lower based on personal collection of stats from people I know who've had it. In this study, nearly 67% of those who were infected lost smell.
- Jimmc414 5y ago
  I modified my comment so to not sound as critical regarding the study. I am glad to have this information. My questions would most likely require a larger sample size and more data. I'd love to know more about participant phenotypes, BMI, and medical history. I'd also like to see a comparison of other early treatment protocols and how they stack up to remdesivir(which was used in the study).
- nojokes 5y ago
  Perhaps it was because the method they were infected? I do not think it will represent common way of getting infected that most likely was via aerosol.
dekhn 5y ago
actually this is some of the first data I've seen that "makes sense" and "helps explain a lot of curious things we've observed". The real point of this study was the demonstrate that we can infect healthy people with COVID, which means now there will be larger challenge studies that ask more probing questions. The folks who ran this trial risked their careers that nobody in the trial would die from COVID!
- nojokes 5y ago
  It still can happen that somebody dies during one of such future trials. I think that this possibility should be accepted if it is for gaining important knowledge about deadly virus but these studies should be very well prepare and vetted that they really will provide this information and will be not for nothing.
  - dekhn 5y ago
    Yes, as the trial size increases, i think the probability of a patient dying due to the challenge approaches 1. With regards to trials and deaths, I used to work in gene therapy and the entire field more or less stopped for 20 years when a single patient (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Gelsinger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Gelsinger) died in a trial. However, in most large trials, there will always be a few deaths that woudln't have occurred without the treatment (or challenge).

peteradio 5y ago

What questions come to mind? I was surprised by the high percent who lost smell, I'd have thought that was closer to ~20% or lower based on personal collection of stats from people I know who've had it. In this study, nearly 67% of those who were infected lost smell.

Jimmc414 5y ago
I modified my comment so to not sound as critical regarding the study. I am glad to have this information. My questions would most likely require a larger sample size and more data. I'd love to know more about participant phenotypes, BMI, and medical history. I'd also like to see a comparison of other early treatment protocols and how they stack up to remdesivir(which was used in the study).
nojokes 5y ago
Perhaps it was because the method they were infected? I do not think it will represent common way of getting infected that most likely was via aerosol.

dekhn 5y ago

actually this is some of the first data I've seen that "makes sense" and "helps explain a lot of curious things we've observed". The real point of this study was the demonstrate that we can infect healthy people with COVID, which means now there will be larger challenge studies that ask more probing questions. The folks who ran this trial risked their careers that nobody in the trial would die from COVID!

nojokes 5y ago
It still can happen that somebody dies during one of such future trials. I think that this possibility should be accepted if it is for gaining important knowledge about deadly virus but these studies should be very well prepare and vetted that they really will provide this information and will be not for nothing.
- dekhn 5y ago
  Yes, as the trial size increases, i think the probability of a patient dying due to the challenge approaches 1. With regards to trials and deaths, I used to work in gene therapy and the entire field more or less stopped for 20 years when a single patient (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Gelsinger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Gelsinger) died in a trial. However, in most large trials, there will always be a few deaths that woudln't have occurred without the treatment (or challenge).