COVID volunteers wanted, would you step up?

[QuarterMillionMan]

One study pays $100 per visit up to $1100 for 11 visits. Another study pays $750 to $1200. Would you volunteer. I'm 54 in good health but no way would I volunteer. Anybody?

[disneysteve]

I volunteered for some medical research years ago. It’s not a bad deal at all. I don’t think I’d do it at this point in my life but if I was younger, sure.

[mumof2]

nope they are putting things in your body that they don't know how it will react...and I have seen some of what they put in your vaccines...no thankyou

[~bs]

um no ways

[bjl584]

hard pass

[ua_guy]

No thanks. And I have no regrets about it because there are others who will volunteer themselves.

[disneysteve]

Just to be clear, I'm not at all opposed to volunteering for a research project. Pharma trials are the way ALL new meds and vaccines and treatments get approved. I fully support that process.

At this point in my life, however, I simply have no need to do something like this. Someone who does this study and attends all visits will earn $1,100-1,200 over 12-14 months. Great. Except if I pick up one extra 8-hour weekend shift at my job, I earn $1,232. In 8 hours. With no medical experimentation being done on me.

If I was young and/or broke or still had a ton of student loan debt and wasn't earning nearly what I earn now, I'd definitely consider it.

[Thrif-t]

Nope. I read something and not sure at all if its true or from a trusted source, said it was from Dr. Fauci but I didn't check, but it made sense. Talked about how we don't know the long term impact on our body from this virus. Talked about how chicken pox reoccurs as shingles later in life, what will this virus do later? Who knows maybe nothing, but not a risk I'm willing to take.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I also read some where that ethically the monetary payoff cannot be too high to entice volunteers for the money. I say hogwash. The drug companies love it that they only need to pay peanuts. I say let the free markets determine the amount which should be $10,000, or $50,000 for taking the risk.

[disneysteve]

Nope. I read something and not sure at all if its true or from a trusted source, said it was from Dr. Fauci but I didn't check, but it made sense. Talked about how we don't know the long term impact on our body from this virus. Talked about how chicken pox reoccurs as shingles later in life, what will this virus do later?

You're mixing up two different issues - the effects of the virus itself and of the vaccine. There is growing evidence that COVID may have long term health effects, even for asymptomatic patients. But these studies are on the vaccine. They won't be infecting anyone with the virus so that's not a concern.

[kork13]

You're mixing up two different issues - the effects of the virus itself and of the vaccine. There is growing evidence that COVID may have long term health effects, even for asymptomatic patients. But these studies are on the vaccine. They won't be infecting anyone with the virus so that's not a concern.

To validate efficacy, they must have to expose the participants, to the active virus, no? Obviously that's not necessary just to prove safety of the vaccine, but how else will you know that it works?

[disneysteve]

To validate efficacy, they must have to expose the participants, to the active virus, no? Obviously that's not necessary just to prove safety of the vaccine, but how else will you know that it works?

What they are measuring in a vaccine study is antibody response.

[disneysteve]

Let me elaborate on that. Typically, in a vaccine trial, they do a placebo group and an active group. So half get the real vaccine and half get a placebo. Then they track how many people in each group come down with the disease.

There has been talk about possibly doing active exposure trials for COVID, meaning they would actually expose some healthy volunteers to the virus. That would allow them to get data faster. I haven't seen if any companies are actually going to do that.

[~bs]

contributing to advance science and mankind and all that is great, but personally i'm not going to be a guinea pig for what amounts to gas money. Honestly they have the military for that, and they actually get compensated to be shot up with experimental vaccines.



Studies have suggested that coronavirus vaccines carry the risk of what is known as vaccine enhancement, where instead of protecting against infection, the vaccine can actually make the disease worse when a vaccinated person is infected with the virus. The mechanism that causes that risk is not fully understood and is one of the stumbling blocks that has prevented the successful development of a coronavirus vaccine.

Normally, researchers would take months to test for the possibility of vaccine enhancement in animals. Given the urgency to stem the spread of the new coronavirus, some drugmakers are moving straight into small-scale human tests, without waiting for the completion of such animal tests.