A small, prominent research group from the USA does not want an approved vaccine against Covid – 19 waiting. Can that go well?

Preston Estep (left) trusts his DIY vaccine

(Image: Alex Hoekstra)

Preston Estep was all alone in a rented laboratory somewhere in Boston. No big company, no board meetings, no billions from the “Operation Warp Speed”, the Covid – 19 – US Government Vaccine Funding Program. No animal test data. No ethics approval. All he had were ingredients for a vaccine. And a willing volunteer: himself. Estep mixed the ingredients and sprayed them into his nose.

Almost 200 Covid – 19 – Vaccines in development and about 30 are in various stages of clinical trials on humans. But the “citizen science” vaccine initiative around Estep does not want to wait until one of these vaccines is formally approved. Other researchers, technologists and science enthusiasts gathered around the founders Preston Estep, Don Wang, Alex Hoekstra and Ranjan Ahuja, many of whom are associated with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They all voluntarily test the do-it-yourself vaccination against the coronavirus.

Among them is the rock star of genetics, Harvard researcher George Church. He sprayed two doses of Estep vaccine in his nose one week apart in early July. The ingredients were in the mailbox, he had to mix them himself. Church says he hasn’t left his house for five months and he thinks his former protégé’s vaccine is safe: “I think the risk of Covid is greater when you are consider how many ways you can get the virus and how diverse the consequences are, “he says.

Access to all contents of heise + exclusive tests , Advice & background: independent, critically sound c’t, iX, Technology Review, Mac & i, Make, c’t read photography directly in the browser register once – read on all devices – can be canceled monthly first month free, thereafter monthly 9, 95 € Weekly newsletter with personal reading recommendations from the editor-in-chief Start FREE month Start your FREE month now heise + already subscribed?

Sign in and read Register now and read the article immediately More information about heise +