Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32978304›Full record

ArticleJournal of medical ethics2020

SARS-CoV-2 challenge studies: ethics and risk minimisation.

Susan Bull, Euzebiusz Jamrozik, Ariella Binik, Michael J Parker

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of medical ethics, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed
0.5field-weighted citation impact, top 23% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

8 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. The Case for Human Challenge Trials in COVID-19.Journal of bioethical inquiry · 2024
    Article
  2. Article
  3. The Development and Distribution of the COVID-19 Vaccine.American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2022
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Review
  7. Review
  8. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.

Susan BullThe Ethox Centre & Wellcome Centre for Ethics and the Humanities, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK susan.bull@ethox.ox.ac.uk.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9730-091X
Euzebiusz JamrozikMonash Bioethics Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5940-602X
Ariella BinikDepartment of Philosophy, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Michael J ParkerThe Ethox Centre, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
University of Oxford · GBMcMaster University · CAMonash University · AU

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

COVID-19 poses an exceptional threat to global public health and well-being. Recognition of the need to develop effective vaccines at unprecedented speed has led to calls to accelerate research pathways ethically, including by conducting challenge studies (also known as controlled human infection studies (CHIs)) with SARS-CoV-2 (the virus which causes COVID-19). Such research is controversial, with concerns being raised about the social, legal, ethical and clinical implications of infecting healthy volunteers with SARS-CoV-2 for research purposes. Systematic risk evaluations are critical to inform assessments of the ethics of any proposed SARS-CoV-2 CHIs. Such evaluations will necessarily take place within a rapidly changing and at times contested epidemiological landscape, in which differing criteria for the ethical acceptability of research risks have been proposed. This paper critically reviews two such criteria and evaluates whether the use of effective treatment should be a necessary condition for the ethical acceptability of SARS-CoV-2 CHIs, and whether the choice of study sites should be influenced by COVID-19 incidence levels. The paper concludes that ethical evaluations of proposed SARS-CoV-2 CHIs should be informed by rigorous, consultative and holistic approaches to systematic risk assessment.

Indexed as

clinical trialsethicsresearch ethicsscientific research

Identifiers

PMID32978304
PMCPMC7520819
OpenAlexW3088056573

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.