More than 14,000 people are volunteering for what's called a 'human challenge trial,' an ethically controversial way to test vaccines that would deliberately infect people with a virus that has killed over 270,000 people worldwide and has no cure.
Sometime in late March, 34-year-old Josh Morrison was quarantined alone in his Brooklyn apartment when a friend emailed him Eyal, Lipsitch and Smith's article.
Morrison, who works as an advocate for kidney donors, felt hopeful for the first time in weeks. He started a group called"The expected value is even having a vaccine one day faster," Morrison said."We want people to see that there are people enthusiastic about this."Courtesy Josh Morrison Volunteers are mothers, students, veterans, historians, journalists, doctors and healthy twenty-somethings."I am older, 52, my kids are grown, and I feel like if I can help save people who are not in the same position then I should do it," one wrote. Another volunteer, who lost half a leg after a head-on trailer collision, wrote,"This would give me a chance to get my sense of self back, to help and protect others, especially my 1-year old-daughter.
Survey responses shared with NBC News include expressions of helplessness and desires to save high-risk loved ones. "No one is obligated to participate in a trial like this, just like no one is obligated to be a kidney donor," Morrison said."If people are ready and willing to do a trial like this, and the trial would be useful, I think it would be wrong to keep that from going forward."
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