Green light for world’s first Sars-CoV-2 studies that will infect healthy volunteers

The UK is to infect healthy young adults with Sars-CoV-2 in a series of clinical ­trials to set up tests of vaccines and treatments.

These human challenge studies, the first of their kind in the world for Covid-19, have just received ethics approval in the UK. Up to 90 volunteers between 18 and 30 years old will be exposed to the virus. Initial studies seek to establish the least amount of virus needed to cause an infection.