Volunteers are putting their hands up to have Covid-19 squirted up their noses in order to speed up the development of a vaccine.
In what’s known as a challenge trial, volunteers would be given a dose of the vaccine and then a few weeks later, be infected with Covid-19.
They would then test whether the vaccine protected them or if they became infected with the virus and develop symptoms.
Irishman Sean McPartlin would be a willing participant in such a trial.
"My mother has a hereditary lung disorder and every day we go without a vaccine is a day that she takes a risk she doesn't have to," the 22-year-old told the BBC’s Fergus Walsh.
"I want to do everything I can to help get that vaccine for her and everyone else like her as quickly as possible."
Volunteers would spend two weeks in quarantine being monitored, which Sean thinks could help him focus on his studies.
"Getting involved in a trial like this involves time and energy, and that's something I am lucky to have. I don't have any medical knowledge, so I can help in a different way."
There are now at least 30 experimental Covid-19 vaccines going through human trials worldwide, with thousands of volunteers immunised.
Only half the volunteers in trials will receive Covid vaccines, the rest will be a control group.
Those taking part don't know, at this stage, which group they are in.
The vaccines may not work at all.
Professor Adrian Hill, director of Oxford University's Jenner Institute, has said he hoped challenge trials could begin "by the end of the year", the BBC reports.
Challenge trials would take away the element of chance and you'd get immediate results.
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