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The case to infect volunteers with COVID-19 to accelerate vaccine testing | Nir Eyal

Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. Conventional vaccine testing is a slow, years-long process. As thousands of people continue to die each day from COVID-19, bioethicist Nir Eyal proposes a radical idea that could dramatically accelerate the vaccine development timeline: “human challenge trials,” in which…

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Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.

Conventional vaccine testing is a slow, years-long process. As thousands of people continue to die each day from COVID-19, bioethicist Nir Eyal proposes a radical idea that could dramatically accelerate the vaccine development timeline: “human challenge trials,” in which scientists would deliberately expose volunteers to the virus to more quickly determine a vaccine’s efficacy. (This virtual conversation, hosted by head of TED Chris Anderson, was recorded June 15, 2020.)

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design — plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You’re welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here:

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31 Comments

31 Comments

  1. Donny Sandley

    July 14, 2020 at 2:14 pm

    It’s so insane so few people can’t do the math with this covid-19 and stop freaking out about nothing serious 😒 talk about cutting off the nose despite the face 🤨

  2. kungfreddie

    July 14, 2020 at 2:32 pm

    Yeah there are always a way to ethically motivating something…. like let’s kill everyone bcoz life is hard. So if you kill all life you will decrease suffering.
    This is just as stupid! If there is no financial motivation for participation.. go for it! If someone want to risk their health I dont care!

  3. kungfreddie

    July 14, 2020 at 2:33 pm

    No its not a trolley cart .. bcoz u have no way of knowing u will get a vaccine. We have no vaccines for any previous corona virus.

  4. kungfreddie

    July 14, 2020 at 2:39 pm

    First question.. marginalized community.. bla bla… privilege… bla bla..! This is science, not social pseudoscience so drop the marxist bs.

  5. Tina Larkin

    July 14, 2020 at 2:52 pm

    Do people realize that not everyone is going to get a vaccination for this virus even if they make one?? Never gotten any flu vaccines, never made my son get one, and neither of us have ever gotten the flu. My husband has to because he’s in the military, and he get sick every time! I’m 39 and my son is 20…

  6. Fabio Fernandes

    July 14, 2020 at 3:22 pm

    I’m fine being infected with Covid19 but not the vaccine lol. The former is harmless, the latter will destroy your immune system

  7. Redemption Draws Near

    July 14, 2020 at 3:44 pm

    Read our lips, “Frankenstein”… we’re not interested in being the lab rats for the mad scientists of the world. We’re not interested in EUGENICS. EUGENICS IS MAN- PLAYING GOD. They do it in the name of GOOD CAUSES, but secretly they’re trying to create a superior RACE, ONE RACE of BEASTS for their anti- Christ father– the devil.

    We are living in the last pages of OUR BOOK that is written and takes place within this matrix called TIME that God created. It has an end. ONLY THOSE who will ENTER THE MATRIX OF ETERNITY will be residing on the earth which IS OUR INHERITANCE, in just a few short years. No man knows the day nor the hour, but those who do not walk in darkness but in the LIGHT of CHRIST, KNOW the TIME. 🙏 Where will YOU be found? Will you perish with the matrix of time and all that’s perishable? Or will your name be found in the Lamb’s book of LIFE?

  8. Redemption Draws Near

    July 14, 2020 at 3:49 pm

    Listen closely to this man. They’re looking for ESAUs. They want you to be a knowledgeable candidate, knowing the full risks (so they won’t be sued when you die), and they will line your pockets with MAMMON and BUY YOUR LIFE and YOUR SOUL for A PENNY and you won’t live to spend it and if you do, you’ll be sickly, in pain and probably think death would feel better. It’s TIME TO AWAKEN and ANSWER the call, IF you’re being called. Don’t keep putting it off. If you’re not reconciled unto THE LIVING GOD, then you will not be alive in the land of the LIVING which is in ETERNITY

  9. Elvis Edge RR Woodward

    July 14, 2020 at 4:03 pm

    It is not necessary.

  10. OG NICK MARSH

    July 14, 2020 at 4:44 pm

    Rich white people first.

  11. H. D prospecting

    July 14, 2020 at 5:16 pm

    Bollox would I. After seeing borris talk at the W. H. O meeting earlier this year talking about nanno bugs. To control aand trace everyone.
    Coronavirus. Discovered in the 1930s. Has been incurable since its discovery. Its a tad fishy. All of it. The test does not test for covid 19. It tests for ” Coronavirus”. As a whole… Wich includes sars mers and the common cold. This is more about control than deaths

  12. Christopher Wales

    July 14, 2020 at 5:25 pm

    The numbers are not correct. Death certificates have been falsified and you want to risk killing people? No thank you.

  13. Premier Study

    July 14, 2020 at 5:29 pm

    So if No vaccine? Thinking of social investing? Gilead Sciences Stock Valuation

  14. gshooting

    July 14, 2020 at 5:49 pm

    Cool, he’s got the same name as the Indistractable author.

  15. Kim Senior

    July 14, 2020 at 5:51 pm

    Stuff your vaccines!

  16. Let’s debate

    July 14, 2020 at 6:05 pm

    Or just get a couple of the millions already infected idiots

  17. Zufar Mulyukov

    July 14, 2020 at 7:03 pm

    he is calling himself a bioethicist and deserved to talk on TED? We already have financial risk managers regularity leading us to crises

    • Major Gnuisance

      July 14, 2020 at 11:00 pm

      “he is calling himself a bioethicist”

      (bioethicist)
      Yeah, sure, “calling himself.”

  18. 3finnian

    July 14, 2020 at 7:05 pm

    I actually want the virus to spread and cleanse the world of the weak.
    Humans are cancer of the earth, myself included but I grow plants where I can, try to be self sufficient.

  19. khawla Al Hafiz

    July 14, 2020 at 7:08 pm

    Really the medical staffs around the world are done a great job in encounter this pandemic. I really would like to give them all a huge greet 🎩👏 guys you all deserve respect you sacrificing your live to help needy people 👏

  20. Freedom 93

    July 14, 2020 at 7:13 pm

    You big dummy

  21. Stuart Cole

    July 14, 2020 at 8:38 pm

    Given how unpredictable this disease seems to be in it’s severity and symptoms and the fact that we know almost nothing about the long term permanent damage that can result seemingly from even mild infections, there is no way that people can give truly informed consent.

    • Major Gnuisance

      July 14, 2020 at 11:37 pm

      “Given how unpredictable this disease seems to be in it’s severity and symptoms”
      Did you miss the part where they discuss specifically how they could select people by how likely they are to *not* have severe adverse effects from infection?
      That implies having significant power to predict the severity of an infection given one’s attributes, which they have, on account of how the virus affects specific age groups in remarkably different ways.

      Is it guaranteed to be safe?
      Of course not!
      It’s a calculated risk that any volunteers will have to be aware of and willing to take to participate.

  22. mr T

    July 14, 2020 at 10:27 pm

    We need less vaccines and even more less lies. Research Vernon Coleman

    • Major Gnuisance

      July 14, 2020 at 11:10 pm

      I looked up that Vernon Coleman person.
      Seems like a quack that’s making a killing for himself selling books to gullible antivaxxers.

  23. mr T

    July 14, 2020 at 10:27 pm

    So many sheeple

  24. Chase Stewart

    July 15, 2020 at 12:07 am

    This is crazy talk. Statistics are great until you are on the wrong side of it. There are enough people getting sick each day why get more people deliberately sick especially if the vaccine might not work.. if they do survive antibodies are short lived and the long term consequences of mild infection is unknown. How many people have long term consequences from ebv? It’s not just surviving, it’s what type of life will you have long term. Will they cover these consequences? If you develop a preexisting condition who covers you r medical costs long term? Who will insure your life? Most people in there 20s don’t think about insurance costs nor the need to have life insurance…

  25. Fuzzy Friend

    July 15, 2020 at 1:13 am

    Sick to my stomach, he should volunteer to be first.

  26. Kevin Wallace

    July 15, 2020 at 1:38 am

    I am all for fighting for a cause but this is a little much. This would be analogous to a bunch of us coming to a dead end road with a cliff nearby and suggesting a few volunteers jump off the cliff to see if they survive or not so the rest of us can cross.

  27. Ar Fumo

    July 16, 2020 at 8:27 am

    Yes human experiment is accetable cause a virus that does not even kill 1% of infected

  28. cybersekkin

    July 17, 2020 at 12:34 am

    Some justification going on here to perform acts of harm. This opens doors to even more questionable activities.

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