Would you volunteer for a human challenge trial to speed up COVID-19 vaccine development?

By Brian Nguyen One of the biggest challenges to vaccine development is determining whether or not the vaccines themselves are safe and effective. The standard process is typically slow and takes a long time to determine results. Challenge trials speed up this process by taking healthy adult volunteers and deliberately exposing them to the virus in a controlled setting to see if the vaccine will work. Critics of the idea argue that COVID-19 is too risky — there is no good treatment for it if people ultimately become severely ill. However, proponents say the benefits outweigh the risks — healthy young adults are not likely to become severely ill. The time saved on vaccine development could...