Researchers Are Paying People A Few Racks To Deliberately Be Infected By The Flu Virus

Chile, I really don’t know about this one here but I’ve seen people do worse for money. Researchers are offering a few thousand dollars to people who volunteer to be infected with the flu virus.

Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases are infecting willing subjects with influenza A (the infamous H1N1 virus, which has caused pandemics) and closely monitoring their symptoms so that they can better understand how the virus works and how to control it, according to CNN.

Researchers say they are doing this in the hopes of finding a cure so that no one will have to endure the flu ever again.

If you’re interested, your health will be worth $3,300. As far as how it works, participants across four research facilities will receive a nasal spray with the virus and spend at least one week at an inpatient facility until they have stopped “shedding” the virus.

As volunteers exhibit typical flu-like symptoms — you know, coughing, heaving, sleeping and shivering — researchers hope to understand how levels of preexisting flu antibodies will impact the duration and severity of participants’ flu symptoms. 

The study runs now until May 2020 (the long end of a typical flu season) at vaccine research units at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, Saint Louis University Center for Vaccine Development in Missouri, Duke University in North Carolina and Ohio’s Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

As you know, the flu can be fatal and that’s one reason why researchers are determined to stop it. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 36,400 to 61,200 people died from the flu in the United States between October 2018 and May 2019, and more than half a million people were hospitalized. 

Roommates, would you let yourself become infected for the flu for a little bit of cash? Let us know!

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