Shoutout to the 130-ish people in the UK who volunteered to be infected with malaria in two separate studies at various stages of the R21 development process! Those studies helped identify Matrix-M as the ideal adjuvant, and also provided insight into the optimal dose/vaccination schedule.
I would not be surprised if this small cohort of volunteers accelerated the pace of getting to this result by a year or more. I’m not going to take a chance on plugging in numbers, but that’s a lot of lives saved per volunteer. While most of the badass points/moral credit goes to the people who received the jab, we should also feel proud of the people who were lined up behind them ready to endure the same.
Assuming the genuine willingness of volunteers who ended up not being selected, I do not see a differing level of moral praiseworthiness based on the fortune/misfortune of not having the opportunity to be a part of the study.
I agree with this! People get filtered out of the studies for reasons completely beyond their control, even if they really want to join. You just can’t help it if your white blood cell count is a tad too low or you have a slight fever the day of study admission.
Shoutout to the 130-ish people in the UK who volunteered to be infected with malaria in two separate studies at various stages of the R21 development process! Those studies helped identify Matrix-M as the ideal adjuvant, and also provided insight into the optimal dose/vaccination schedule.
I would not be surprised if this small cohort of volunteers accelerated the pace of getting to this result by a year or more. I’m not going to take a chance on plugging in numbers, but that’s a lot of lives saved per volunteer. While most of the badass points/moral credit goes to the people who received the jab, we should also feel proud of the people who were lined up behind them ready to endure the same.
Assuming the genuine willingness of volunteers who ended up not being selected, I do not see a differing level of moral praiseworthiness based on the fortune/misfortune of not having the opportunity to be a part of the study.
I agree with this! People get filtered out of the studies for reasons completely beyond their control, even if they really want to join. You just can’t help it if your white blood cell count is a tad too low or you have a slight fever the day of study admission.