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.
NASA's Perseverance Rover unexpectedly has discovered volcanic rock on the surface of Mars. Scientists initially had thought the rocks were sedimentary in nature.
The deadly tornadoes that devastated Kentucky and five other states last weekend have brought climate change back to forefront of the conversation. Scientists say no single weather event can be pinned to climate change alone, but this December has been unseasonably warm, and warmer temperatures can make extreme weather events more likely. Jana Houser, associate professor of meteorology at Ohio University, joined Cheddar to discuss what role climate change might have played in these deadly tornadoes, and what can be done to prevent severe weather events like this from getting even worse in the future.
Even as tech giant Google implements a vaccination mandate, charging its employees to declare their vaccine status within a time frame or risk dismissal, the federal government is tangled up in the court system trying to impose one of its own. Cindy Cohn, the executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Harry Nelson, founder and managing partner of Nelson Hardiman LLP, joined Cheddar to debate the ethics, efficacy, and legality surrounding the issue. While Cohn noted that she thinks the federal mandate might be legally sound, her organization is also concerned with a separate question of privacy. "At EFF what we're most interested in is the digital surveillance that's going along with some of these attempts to try to track and confirm whether people are vaccinated or not," she said.
There is a new way for investors to bet on cannabis - the AdvisorShares Poseidon Dynamic Cannabis ETF targets about 20 of the biggest names in U.S. cannabis. It comes at a time when it's still difficult for investors to access the space. Cheddar News cannabis reporter Chloe Aiello spoke with co-founder and managing director for Poseidon Investment Management, Emily Paxhia.
Joellen Russell, Professor at the University of Arizona, joins Cheddar Climate to discuss how poor academic curricula and misinformation online are hindering efforts to educate children about climate change, as well as how Science Moms is providing resources to moms to help create a safer world for their children.
Another successful spaceflight is in the books for Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. The company's third human spaceflight blasted off from Van Horn, TX. on Saturday, lasting about ten minutes from takeoff to landing. The crew, which included former NFL star and current GMA host Michael Strahan, traveled to the edge of space and experienced a few minutes of weightlessness before the capsule descended back to earth. Andrew Chanin, CEO of ProcureAM, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the significance of the launch.
The U.S. Government is making its first major move toward encouraging nuclear energy in the U.S., as it pushes toward a sustainable future. Scott Waldman, White House reporter for Politico's E&E News joined Cheddar News to break down the developments. "There's definitely an audience for this now since we're looking at the value of nuclear in terms of climate policy," he said, regarding the prospects for bipartisan support.
Google reportedly has announced that its employees must declare their vaccination status by January 18 or face a loss of pay, administrative leave, and eventual termination.
