U.S Considers Human Challenge Trials

The US is taking human challenge trials into consideration, but it is not likely that we will go down that path. Challenge trials are when humans are exposed to the coronavirus and are treated with a vaccine to test the vaccine’s validity. Fauci labels this as a “Plan D” but he doesn’t “think this is something we're going to use.” He also includes that the strain would be a GMP strain which means Good Manufacturing Practice. This is to ensure that medical products are produced consistently and that they are up to par as they are regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration. Challenge trials are often used when a virus is not widespread, so these trials may not even be used. Recently, there has been a controversy over this issue. Vaccine makers argue that this process would be too slow while experts felt that human challenge trials might be necessary although this would not replace Phase 3 or speed up the development of a potential shot. Many fear these trials since an illness or even death of a healthy individual might stop the progress of vaccine development and cause public fear.