In its August 10, 2020 edition, the newspaper O Estado de S Paulo published an article highlighting the fact that 9,000 Brazilians have signed up as volunteers to take part in a study with the Covid-19 vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford. In the proposed study, classified as a human challenge study, volunteers receive the vaccine being tested or a placebo and are then infected with the virus, which would allow scientists to observe more quickly whether the immunizer is effective.
The issue of infecting volunteers with the virus of a disease that has already killed more than 100,000 people in Brazil alone, and which still has no known treatment, makes it even more essential to analyze it from an ethical point of view.
In this context, Juliana Santoro, Abracro's Educational Director, pointed out that "as much as we want the regulatory processes to be accelerated at the moment, we have to consider that we are dealing with human beings and we need time to see how these people respond and whether they will have any long-term effects".
Abracro recently published a text on the importance of Ethics in Clinical Research. The aim of the text was to emphasize that the protection and maintenance of the rights and safety of subjects participating in clinical research should be ensured, even in extreme situations, such as a pandemic.
Access the O Estado de S Paulo article directly on the newspaper's website at https://saude.estadao.com.br/noticias/geral,desafio-humano-da-vacina-leva-9-mil-brasileiros-a-inscricao-como-voluntarios,70003393592.amp ( login and password may be required to read the full article).
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