So, the experiment has been canceled. Thankfully.
Um… Maybe not thankfully. But, at least blessedly.
What experiment?
A little history, first.
A lifetime ago, I had a side gig at Linguistic Systems in Cambridge. This tiny company (two owners, me and another employee, plus a bunch of contractors [gig workers]) had contracts to translate scientific research from foreign languages into English. (Initially, I had no idea the clients were the Air Force and Army spy centers- or the CIA.)
More than once I ran across an article that described an experiment performed in the Soviet Union. They infected a pool of folks with a disease and provided a proposed treatment to half of them. Obviously, this was an effective method to determine the usefulness of a drug. As long as one had the ethics of a snake.
Well, given the pandemic, the UK was about to do something very similar. They were about to infect a slew of folks with SARS-CoV-2 (produced by a company called InVIVO) this coming January. That way they could determine what vaccines worked.
Except they don’t have to do that. Because we citizens have been terribly lax (some simply foolhardy) and created (un)healthy second and third waves. So, we have plenty of folks who can demonstrate the viability of vaccines.
This surge is one of the reasons why some of the clinical trials ended (what would have been called) prematurely. Because so many folks were infected with the disease, we could easily determine whether a drug was effective in preventing the infection.
Now you know why I said thankfully, at first. But, then, I realized that we can’t be thankful when 1 to 2 million folks a week (in the US) are succumbing to COVID-19; when 2000+ are dying each day. (Actually, yesterday had someone dying almost every 30 seconds- 2857 in all!) But, it is a blessed event that we have to infect no one purposefully to test the vaccine effectiveness.
Very sobering. And now I understand that in South Dakota (where one of my cousins is a first year nursing school student!) they are asking the infected, once recovered, to donate plasma for treating new patients. One can only hope a silver lining is hidden in all this suffering. (While I say this I also want to give a shout out to one of the Pfizer test participants in my area- a middle aged woman who is also a cancer survivor- that I met once, years ago. She’s an autism advocate, too. Kudos to her and everyone else who volunteered!)
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The convalescent plasma seems to eradicate the chances of developing severe cases of COVID-19.
Interesting tidbit. My blog today is along the same line, w a sprinkling of CV19 statistics. What a quagmire!
More of a disaster than a quagmire, in my point of view.
These are indeed tragic times. It seems ethics are being called into question more often these days and all this suspicion will impact everyone. It will be a long road back to trusting the vaccine and those responsible for each aspect the vaccination process.
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I am certain that our approval process is running despite the statements of politicians. It will be effective and safe- the question is how long the immujnity developed.
WOW that would be scary to get infected intentionally with the live virus. Do you think if and when the vaccines start they will be helpful?
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The vaccines will certainly stop those vaccinated from developing the disease. Forever? I have no clue, but think not.
When so much looks dismal, it helps to see the silver lining, to see what good may come out of the disease spike. Here’s hoping our health care workers can hold on.
You are absolutely correct, Kathleen! Thanks for making sure we remember to acknowledge our health care workers keeping us safe- even when their patients deny they’re succumbing to COVID-19.
Oh- and thanks for your first comment. Love to see you around here again.