6 ms·

Intentionally infecting people for study isn't something that really fits with our medical ethics, at least as I understand them.

ch4s3 3y ago
IIRC it can be done when there is little risk of serious adverse effects, or there is a known treatment that works well and mitigates risk of adverse effects.
Retric 3y ago
It’s common practice for diseases where healthy people are unlikely to have severe issues, even if they may be deadly for some segment of the population. https://youtu.be/1v8u3ua6BPk?si=lzAQcZlmnBc1xvj1 https://youtu.be/1v8u3ua6BPk?si=lzAQcZlmnBc1xvj1
xnx 3y ago
It can be controversial, but is done: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_challenge_study https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_challenge_study
nradov 3y ago
Imperial College London conducted a COVID-19 human challenge clinical trial. The risk to healthy subjects without comorbid conditions is extremely low. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/infectious-disease/research/human-challenge/ https://www.imperial.ac.uk/infectious-disease/research/human...
BurningFrog 3y ago
Yeah, the medical "ethics" field is full of really weird and damaging decisions. Someone needs to do the work exposing what the hell is going on there.
cosmotron 3y ago
As others noted, it does happen and is called a human challenge trial. In fact, here's one for malaria that's currently accepting signups. https://www.medschool.umaryland.edu/CVD/trials/MAM01/ https://www.medschool.umaryland.edu/CVD/trials/MAM01/
Gibbon1 3y ago
There have been a half dozen challenge studies[1] of influenza in the last 50 years. They're interesting in that there are threshold effects and a dose response relationship. None of the small numbers of test subjects get sick or seroconverted at low doses. Medium doses produce seroconversion without illness. Higher doses produce illness. Before covid I found a Thai study on the effect of masking nurses in healthcare clinics. Masks reduced infections with some respiratory viruses and not others. Can't be stated strongly enough is you cannot use the behavior of one virus as a proxy for the behavior of an unrelated one. [1] Lack of rigorous studies of respiratory infections in the last 70 years caught public health policy makers completely flat footed. Because they were working off out of date textbook knowledge that was low quality.

ch4s3 3y ago

IIRC it can be done when there is little risk of serious adverse effects, or there is a known treatment that works well and mitigates risk of adverse effects.

Retric 3y ago

It’s common practice for diseases where healthy people are unlikely to have severe issues, even if they may be deadly for some segment of the population. https://youtu.be/1v8u3ua6BPk?si=lzAQcZlmnBc1xvj1 https://youtu.be/1v8u3ua6BPk?si=lzAQcZlmnBc1xvj1

xnx 3y ago

It can be controversial, but is done: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_challenge_study https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_challenge_study

nradov 3y ago

Imperial College London conducted a COVID-19 human challenge clinical trial. The risk to healthy subjects without comorbid conditions is extremely low. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/infectious-disease/research/human-challenge/ https://www.imperial.ac.uk/infectious-disease/research/human...

BurningFrog 3y ago

Yeah, the medical "ethics" field is full of really weird and damaging decisions. Someone needs to do the work exposing what the hell is going on there.

cosmotron 3y ago

As others noted, it does happen and is called a human challenge trial. In fact, here's one for malaria that's currently accepting signups. https://www.medschool.umaryland.edu/CVD/trials/MAM01/ https://www.medschool.umaryland.edu/CVD/trials/MAM01/

Gibbon1 3y ago

There have been a half dozen challenge studies[1] of influenza in the last 50 years. They're interesting in that there are threshold effects and a dose response relationship. None of the small numbers of test subjects get sick or seroconverted at low doses. Medium doses produce seroconversion without illness. Higher doses produce illness. Before covid I found a Thai study on the effect of masking nurses in healthcare clinics. Masks reduced infections with some respiratory viruses and not others. Can't be stated strongly enough is you cannot use the behavior of one virus as a proxy for the behavior of an unrelated one. [1] Lack of rigorous studies of respiratory infections in the last 70 years caught public health policy makers completely flat footed. Because they were working off out of date textbook knowledge that was low quality.