You can now get paid £3,500 to get infected with coronavirus

Volunteers can now be paid £3,500 to be infected with coronavirus, in an effort to find a vaccine for the disease.

Up to 24 volunteers at a time will be paid to be infected with the disease and spend 14 days at a quarantine unit in London. This is part of a global effort to develop a coronavirus vaccine – there are more than 20 currently in development, The Times reports.

Professor John Oxford, an expert in virology at Queen Mary University of London, says a vaccine is “at least a year away”. Human trials of the vaccine are set to begin next month.

What will it involve?

Volunteers will have no contact with the outside world for the two weeks they are in the quarantine facility. They will be infected with two common stains of coronavirus, which are from the same family of viruses as Covid-19 but only cause mild respiratory illness – the symptoms of a cough or a cold.

Before they are infected, volunteers will be asked about their medical history and have blood, urine and cardiac tests. They will be inoculated in the lab, and two weeks later will return for the 14 days of quarantined isolation. This will allow researchers to test the efficacy of vaccines and antiviral drugs.

During their quarantine, the volunteers cannot exercise and will have no physical contact with other people: Their doctors and nurses will have to wear ventilators and protective clothing.

No gym, £3,500 AND having to do nothing for two weeks? All while helping save lives? Sign me UP.

(No, but seriously, if you’d like to find out more about taking part and helping develop the coronavirus vaccine, go to the Flu Camp website.)

Stock featured image via SWNS.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Uni students are literally having stones thrown at them because of coronavirus

• This map shows every confirmed case of coronavirus in the UK so far

• This is what it’s actually like to self-isolate at uni because of coronavirus