To Find a Coronavirus Vaccine Can We Ethically Infect People with a Disease with No Cure?

May 7, 2020

(U.S.A Today) – Vaccine trials can take decades. In the race against COVID-19, we don’t even have years. To have a vaccine by next summer will require both luck and cutting corners never cut before, putting once seemingly academic questions about vaccine testing suddenly front and center. Current rules are meant to protect volunteers from harm, but with the global death count from the coronavirus over 250,000, scientists are asking: Is it acceptable to deliberately infect healthy people with a disease that could kill them, and for which there is no cure?