Volunteers to be infected with coronavirus for £3,500 in an attempt to find a vaccine that cures the ailment

Volunteers will reportedly receive £3,500 to be purposefully infected with coronavirus in a bid to find a cure for the deadly virus.

To find a vaccine for the virus, volunteers in east London are being paid to be intentionally infected with coronavirus and live in quarantine at the Queen Mary BioEnterprises Innovation Centre in Whitechapel.

Willing participants will be injected with two common but much less serious strains of the virus, reports the Daily Star.

Hvivo, the company behind the laboratory at Queen Mary, will be infecting 24 volunteers at a time with the 0C43 and 229E strains of the virus. 

It is thought these strains will cause mild respiratory symptoms and be much less severe than the coronavirus that is currently spreading around the globe.

It is thought a vaccine can be developed from this testing that would tackle the destructive virus.

Anyone who has volunteered to take part in this study will have to stay in quarantine for two weeks.


There will be some restrictions placed on the participants during this time, including no exercise or physical contact with other people. They will only be able to eat and drink certain foods.

Any nurses or doctors who work on this study will have to wear ventilators and protective clothes while they are working in the lab or with any material that may be infected with the virus, such as dirty tissues or blood tests.

The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency will have to agree on Hvivo’s plans before this experiment can take place.

This testing is part of a $2bn global effort to find a vaccine for coronavirus. Over 20 Covid-19 vaccines are currently being developed, according to the World Health Organisation.

Following the experiment, the most effective drugs and vaccines will be chosen, and these will be used on patients who naturally contract coronavirus.