Whom Do You Want for Volunteers?

Abstract

Not just any person will do for phase II and III vaccine trials. What you need is a volunteer who is competent to understand what she or he is getting into, one who has the freedom to give or deny consent, one who is presently HIV negative, and yet one who is still at some fairly high risk for becoming HIV positive. You need a volunteer who is likely to expose himself or herself to the virus. If no subjects ever engaged in risky behaviors, then the vaccine would never be tested against the real virus, and you would never know whether it works or not. The research would be a pointless and expensive waste.