proque_blent

Hey, this is obviously just my opinion, but here's the danger I mean.

One scenario is that if enough people with hidden or unrelated health issues hide them in order to get paid for trials, such people are more likely to have adverse reactions than the general population (as I understand it, people with weakened immune systems for example are not given even completed vaccines and must instead rely on herd immunity). If enough such people slip in, then perfectly good vaccines might be discarded because of the adverse effects on the challenge trial groups.

Conversely, if payment is on a completion/duration basis, I worry that desperately poor might hide/downplay symptoms in an effort to stay in. This could (again if not caught) lead to a poorer understanding of the efficacy of the vaccine or the quality of the immune response triggered.

Perhaps these types of problems can be solved with some oversight and structure, but simply adding money to the equation without other safeguards seems to add potential for abuse.

On another level, one of the concerns I have about paid vaccine trials in comparison to the other Professions you mentioned is the skill ceiling associated with it. While there are certainly risks and costs associated with what you do, trial volunteers by the nature of the job are passive participants in the research.

The other jobs therefore are unlikely to attract desperate individuals unless they believe they can at least fake competence. Likely, such individuals would be caught quickly. On the other hand, here the concern would be with regards to hiding aspects of their health that might get them disqualified, such as smoking, drinking or drug use in an attempt to gain legitimate income. While a few such individuals are not the end of the world, enough of them could taint the study and if undetected can lead to pernicious results on vaccine development.

That said, I completely understand the logic in rewarding such services to society, if only in the interest of fairness. This is a more complex question than can be solved on a Reddit thread, but interesting to think about nonetheless