Kate Garraway fears for 'brave' volunteers being infected with coronavirus for UK trial

‘It’s a disease we don’t fully understand’, said GMB host

Kate Garraway has shared her concerns over a new coronavirus trial that involves volunteers being injected with Covid-19.

The Good Morning Britain (GMB) host, whose husband Derek Draper remains in hospital after falling ill with the virus in March, said she was surprised to hear about the trial considering there is still so much doctors do not know about the effects of Covid-19.

During Wednesday’s episode of GMB, Garraway discussed the news with co-host Ranvir Singh and Dr Amir Khan.

“There is a new trial- which we were all surprised about – taking part at Oxford University,” Garraway said.

“The interesting thing is they're calling for healthy volunteers to be infected with Covid now. I didn't think that was happening, I mean, it's a brave volunteer who does that.”

The trial, called The Human Challenge Programme, is a partnership between Imperial College London, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), hVIVO, a leading clinical company with expertise in viral human challenge models, and the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr Khan said the trial requires healthy volunteers aged 18-30 to take part. The participants will be directly injected with coronavirus and monitored, in order for researchers to learn more about the infection.

It is still yet to go through an ethics committee, with Singh describing it as a “fast track way to see what Covid does to the body”.

Dr Khan explained to viewers how the trial will work, saying: “They are slowly going to expose them to small quantities of the virus to see what the threshold is, which might help with a vaccine.

“They will be monitoring these people very carefully, it'll be very controlled, and there'll be rescue medication should any of them get sick.”

However, Garraway was quick to highlight that things could go wrong.

“When you say very controlled, it’s a disease we don’t fully understand,” she said.

“They could be watching you very carefully but suddenly you’re one of those unfortunate people who develop symptoms that we still don’t have a cure for.”

Dr Khan agreed and said there is potential for trial volunteers to suffer complications from the virus.

“Things could go wrong,” he explained. “It’s going to be very brave volunteers that go for it. This is what trials are all about and there’s always a risk.”

The GMB hosts also spoke with Tim Eason, a volunteer who is currently taking part in ongoing Covid-19 vaccine trials.

Sharing his experience of taking part, he said: “I certainly wasn’t nervous… it was a very thorough process. The [medical staff] are absolutely taking no chances at all. They check you over and over again.”

Eason added that he waiting to have his second injection in three weeks’ time.

“In the meantime, I have a little kit of tests and test swabs and an emergency contact number if I develop any Covid symptoms,” he explained. “I’m very confident that I will get top class care should I develop Covid symptoms.”

The comments come as Garraway’s husband enters his seventh month in hospital after contracting coronavirus earlier this year.

The 53-year-old’s condition quickly worsened and he was taken to intensive care and placed in a medically-induced coma.

In July, it was reported that Draper was in a minimal state of consciousness, having come out of a “deeper coma” but that he was still unable to speak.

Giving an update on his condition this month, Garraway said her partner had lost eight stone during his stay in hospital.