Volunteers in COVID-19 human challenge trials are genuinely altruistic, not desperate for money or lacking understanding of the risks

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

 

IMAGE: SELECTIONS WERE NOT RANKED, AND TOTAL PERCENTAGES ADD TO 300% BECAUSE EACH PARTICIPANT SELECTED 3 OPTIONS. THE TWO MOST COMMONLY SELECTED OPTIONS WERE “I WANTED TO HELP OTHERS AND POTENTIALLY SAVE LIVES” (95.9%) AND “I WANTED TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE PROGRESS OF MEDICINE” (79.2%). view more 

CREDIT: MARSH ET AL., 2022, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)

Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0275823

Article Title: Characterizing altruistic motivation in potential volunteers for SARS-CoV-2 challenge trials

Author Countries: USA, UK

Funding: This study was supported by 1Day Sooner in the form of a grant as part of the Open Philanthropy Project, and in the form of salaries for authors SMR, VS, & JM. This study was also supported by 1Day Sooner in the form of additional financial support for MP. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section. This study was also supported by National Science Foundation in the form of grants for MM, NE (2039320) and AAM (1729406). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Participants in volunteer and control groups were surveyed on their engagement with a range of altruistic behaviors, including blood donation, significant charitable donations and organ/marrow donor status. (IMAGE)

PLOS

CAPTION

Volunteers were significantly more likely than controls to have participated in all but one of the altruistic behaviors.

CREDIT

Marsh et al., 2022, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0275823 

ARTICLE TITLE

Characterizing altruistic motivation in potential volunteers for SARS-CoV-2 challenge trials

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Nov-2022

COI STATEMENT

The authors have read the journal’s policy and have the following competing interests: SMR and VS were employees of 1Day Sooner at the time of this study. JM is a current employee of 1Day Sooner. NE and AAM are on the Board of Advisors for 1Day Sooner. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products associated with this research to declare.