El Paso woman volunteers to be infected to help find Covid vaccine

EL PASO, Texas -- As Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc and cost lives all across the world, thousands of volunteers are stepping up and volunteering to be infected in the effort to find a vaccine.

One such volunteer is 67-year-old El Paso resident Elaine Gordon, an accomplished nutritionist, award-winning triathlete and advocate for the non-profit group 1 Day Sooner.

The group wants to bring human challenge trials to the United States.

“Because in conventional trials it really does take at least two to four years to develop a good vaccine but with human challenge trials we can know inside of a month or two whether the vaccine candidate will work successfully," Gordon said.

The group was created back in April and is pushing for human challenge trials to take place in the U.S.

“The United Kingdom is going to start their challenge trials in January which will be the first in the world and then Canada will follow," Gordon said.

Most trial volunteers are between 18 to 30 years-old but Gordon believes that she is uniquely qualified as an athlete to represent her age group and help further research efforts on seniors.

Gordon and 1 Day Sooner have been busy contacting government groups and congressional leaders about the trials.

“We want them to speak to the Food and Drug Administration to allow their regulators to go ahead and regulate the human challenge trials," Gordon said.

They are hoping that human challenge trials could start in the U.S. as soon as January.