UK approves first ever study to purposely expose people to Covid - here’s how it will work

The world’s first study involving purposely exposing people to Covid has been approved to take place in the UK.

The new study will deliberately expose healthy volunteers to the virus in a controlled and safe environment, with the aim of giving doctors a greater understanding of Covid-19.

The first phase of the Human Challenge study aims to establish the smallest amount of virus needed to cause infection.

The trial will begin in the next few weeks and will involve up to 90 carefully selected and healthy adult volunteers, with those aged between 18 and 30 years old encouraged to volunteer as they have the lowest risk of complications from the virus.

The study will use the version of the virus found in the UK in March 2020 to begin with, as this variant has been shown to be of low risk in young healthy adults.

However, in the future, the study could be adapted to use new Covid-19 variants.