Prognosis
Volunteers Are Lining Up to Be Infected With the Coronavirus
- Thousands say they’re willing to be exposed to Covid
- Controversial testing approach could help vaccine appraisal
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When Gavriel Kleinwaks was a child, she was captivated by the story of Jonas Salk, the vaccine pioneer who tested a potential polio shot on himself, his wife and children in 1953. Nationwide trials seen as the biggest public-health experiment ever later proved that it worked.
Now Kleinwaks is signing up to take part in another high-stakes experiment. The doctoral student at the University of Colorado is one of almost 30,000 volunteers willing to deliberately expose themselves to the coronavirus to test a potential vaccine, should researchers decide to proceed.