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.
Dr. Farhan Bhatti, a family physician and Michigan State lead for the Committee to Protect Health Care, joined Cheddar to discuss the newly discovered and highly transmissible omicron variant of COVID-19. Bhatti said it is too early to draw any conclusions about the new variant but there is concern that it could eventually mutate and develop a resistance to vaccines. "Time will tell, but for now, it looks like, still, the best thing that we can do to try to limit the spread of this disease is make sure everybody gets a vaccine and make sure everybody avoids large gatherings indoors and wears masks during the wintertime especially," he said.
Jill and Carlo cover the latest developments with the Omicron variant that are spooking markets once again. Twitter's @Jack is leaving, SCOTUS takes up abortion rights and the world has a brand new republic.
A CDC panel unanimously endorsed Moderna and Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine boosters for all U.S. adults. This comes after the FDA gave its own authorization for everyone 18 and older, scrapping previous eligibility factors like age and underlying conditions. Dr. Shereef Elnahal, President and CEO of University Hospital and former New Jersey Health Commissioner, joined Cheddar News to break down the development.
The Biden Administration is set to buy 10 million courses of Pfizer's Covid pill if it gains emergency use authorization from the FDA. With this purchase, the U.S. will receive more than 13 million courses of antiviral pills aimed at treating Covid and reducing severe illness and death. Pfizer's pill has been shown to reduce risk of hospitalization and death by 89 percent, proving it could be a key tool in the fight against the pandemic. Dr. Soumi Eachempati, Co-Founder, CEO & CMO of Cleared4, joined Cheddar News to discuss.
Dr. David Dodson, Infectious Disease Specialist at Carden & Dodson MD, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to break down what we know so far about the Omicron Covid-19 variant, and why you shouldn't wait for an Omicron-specific shot to get vaccinated.
Friday saw big sell offs, with the Dow Jones posting its worst day since October 2020, falling 905 points, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 each tumbling more than two percent as well. Much of that due to investor concerns over the new Covid-19 'Omicron' variant first detected in South Africa. Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda explains what investors should expect this week.
The ocean is an important topic when it comes to the climate. It plays a vital role in shaping our environment, with rising sea levels causing a 35% increase in natural disasters around the world, affecting 1.7 billion people. Dr. Sylvia Earle has been called perhaps the greatest advocate our oceans have ever had, with Time magazine dubbing her its first 'hero of the planet' and the Library of Congress naming her a living legend. She is also the founder of Mission Blue, an organization that inspires action to explore and protect the ocean. Dr. Earle joined Cheddar Climate for more on the importance of caring for the ocean and its impact on climate change.
Scientists are racing to understand the Omicron variant of covid-19 and find out just how dangerous it really is. Omicron, dubbed a variant of concern by the WHO, was first detected in South Africa last week and has already spread to multiple countries, including the UK, Canada, Australia and more. Dr. Jonathan Javitt, CEO of Nrx and adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, joined Cheddar to discuss what we know and don't know about this new variant.
The House has officially passed the $1.75 trillion social policy and climate big. This new bill is expected to bring some huge investments into working towards fighting climate change. U.S. President of We Don't Have Time, Sweta Chakraborty, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
