Testing vaccines for the coronavirus raises tough ethical questions
The 29-year-old press officer at the University of Washington volunteered earlier this year to become a test subject for an experimental COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Moderna Inc.
The aim of the so-called Phase 1 trial was to determine whether there were short-term adverse effects of the vaccine, and if so, how severe they were. In order to develop a coronavirus vaccine, healthy people are going to need to step up and take a little bit of risk in these clinical trials.For Haydon, they were pretty severe. After receiving his second shot of a high-dose version of the vaccine, he spiked a fever of more than 103 degrees, which led him to seek treatment at a local urgent care clinic. When he returned home, he lost consciousness., as an indication that the vaccine had passed its initial trial threshold for safety.
Haydon told me he has had “no regrets whatsoever” about having participated in the trial. He has described himself asHe didn’t sign up for the trial out of bravado or for pay, though he receives a modest monthly payment over the 14 months that his health will be monitored. He says he would participate in the trial even if it were unpaid.“It’s a way I could responsibly use my health to help other people,” he says.
As clinical trials go, Haydon’s risk was relatively mild. He wasn’t exposed to the coronavirus , and although the vaccine was found to have given him antibodies that could fight the virus, he has subsequently tested negative for the virus itself.
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