Would you volunteer to be deliberately infected with COVID-19? It's a question some people are seriously considering. In an effort to speed up the development of a vaccine, 1 Day Sooner is asking volunteers to sign up for human challenge trials that will expose them to the virus in an effort to study the disease and develop a cure.
Josh Morrison, the co-founder of 1 Day Sooner, told Cheddar Wednesday that these human challenges have been used to study other diseases in the past, including malaria, typhoid, and cholera.
"The drug Tamiflu, for example, was developed with challenge trials, as well as the malaria vaccine RTS,S that's being deployed in Africa right now," he said. "You can find out much more quickly whether a vaccine might work, than a traditional trial which might have thousands or even tens of thousands of volunteers."
The National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization have shown interest in the human challenge trials, according to Morrison. The WHO recently published an ethics report to which the 1 Day Sooner team offered suggestions, though they were not accepted for the publication.
Morrison said that there has been growing interest in the trials, adding, "It's not universal acclaim or an immediate 'we need challenge trials right away from every possible corner,' but the message today is immensely different, immensely more positive than what the public message was a month ago."
He acknowledged that the risk of injecting people with COVID-19 could be deadly, but he said he believes that the potential value of finding a vaccine from these challenges is worth it.
"If you look at the risks of getting COVID-19 for the young, healthy group that would participate in challenge trials, they're roughly on a par with childbirth or with kidney donation. So, again, significant risk and we're not understating that, but these are risks that we commonly allow people to accept normally, and given the tremendous possible value we think it's worth accepting them in this case," the 1 Day Sooner co-founder said.
Neil Young has come up with an ultimatum for Spotify: his music or Joe Rogan’s podcast. This comes over concerns that the podcast is spreading COVID-19 vaccine misinformation to its listeners. "The Joe Rogan Experience," which is exclusive to Spotify, is currently the number one streamed podcast on the platform.
Commercial and residential buildings account for 13% of carbon emissions in the U.S., according to the EPA, and one company says it has a solution. Runwise says it has updated the boiler and heating systems of thousands of buildings, and that its technology not only lowers carbon output but also saves landlords money. Lee Hoffman, Co-Founder and COO of Runwise, joined Cheddar Climate to discuss.
Jo Ruxton, Founder of Ocean Generation, joins Cheddar Climate, where she explains the threat that plastic pollution poses to marine life, but elaborates on why we shouldn't be looking to ban plastic entirely. Ruxton also discusses her biggest takeaways while producing the film ‘A Plastic Ocean.'
President Joe Biden's Build Back Better deal seems all but finished after months of Democratic infighting and the Senate's deadlock over certain provisions. But Biden mentioned during a press conference marking his first year in office that 'chunks' of the bill could be passed. Is that enough motivation to force Democrats to rally around certain parts of the bill - especially those that focus on climate and green energy? Andrew Freedman, Energy and Climate Reporter at Axios, joins Cheddar Climate to discuss whether Senate Democrats will be able to rally around climate provisions, if the idea of passing Build Back Better in 'chunks' is doable, and more.
Anyone who remembers the 70s and 80s will probably remember acid rain. Industrial emissions acidified precipitation around the globe, which killed forests and crops, rendered lakes inhospitable, corroded buildings, and exacerbated human health problems.
But anyone who follows environmental news will be surprised to learn this: we solved it! Countries came together to limit acid rain-causing emissions, eliminating the problem altogether.
…kind of. Acidic precipitation may not be a thing of the past after all.
Natalie Ginsberg, Global Impact Officer, MAPS, joins Cheddar Reveals to discuss MAPS organization and its current initiatives and their work to get FDA approval for MDMA to treat PTSD.
Kelsey Ramsden, Co-Founder, President & CEO, Mind Cure Health, joins Cheddar Reveals to break down what 'psychedelic therapy' could look like once it's legalized and how Mind Cure Health is using AI to help treat everything from addiction to depression.
On this episode of Cheddar Reveals, Natalie Ginsberg, Global Impact Officer, MAPS, discusses the MAPS organization and its current initiatives and their work to get FDA approval for MDMA to treat PTSD; Kelsey Ramsden, Co-Founder, President & CEO, Mind Cure Health, breaks down what 'psychedelic therapy' could look like once it's legalized and how Mind Cure Health is using AI to help treat everything from addiction to depression; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Pain, Pus and Poison.'
