CONTEXT: Ordinarily we wouldn’t post news about RCT studies. However, the thing that caught our eye in this article is the need to point out that the research question they are looking at, a very specific COVID challenge study, would be almost impossible to discover through RWR. OK. We get that. Are we seeing a trend in the mainstream clinical research to put RWR in its place?
IMPACT: Medium
READ TIME: 2 mins
Quality Level Mean [1 – 10]: 7
1. “The World Health Organization (WHO) describe a human challenge study in the following terms: “Human challenge trials are trials in which participants are intentionally challenged (whether or not they have been vaccinated) with an infectious disease organism.””
2. “The research is being orchestrated by a number of institutions, including the U.K. government’s Vaccines Taskforce, as well as Imperial College London, the Royal Free London National Health Service Foundation Trust, and the clinical company hVIVO, an expert in viral challenge studies.”
3. “According to Clive Dix, the interim chair of the Vaccines Taskforce, the human challenge study will “offer unique insights into how the virus works and help us understand which promising vaccines offer the best chance of preventing the infection.””
4. “Human challenge studies also allow scientists to observe the progression of an infection from the very moment that the virus enters the body.”
5. “Some people have questioned whether we truly need human challenge studies now that we have functioning COVID-19 vaccines.”
Source URL: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/what-are-human-challenge-studies