Community Corner

POLL: Would You Volunteer to Get the Flu in Exchange for Money?

The government is paying volunteers $3,000 to willingly contract the flu.

By Kristi Reed 

It isn't exactly a job most people would want. The National Institutes of Health needs test subjects willing to get a live dose of flu squirted up their noses. Not only that, the test subjects must agree to spend at least nine days quarantined in a special isolation ward until they are shown to be non-contagious, AOL Jobs reports.

The reward? Assuming you survive, you get $3,000 to compensate you for your time and inconvenience.

The purpose of the study, according to CBS News, is to study how the body fends off influenza. That's why researchers need healthy subjects who do not already have the flu. The dose given to the test subjects is one that reportedly produces mild to moderate symptoms. Volunteers must be healthy and no older than 50 years of age.

By studying how the bodies of younger subjects react to the flu, researchers hope to develop more effective vaccines.

"It's all going to add up to a better understanding of what you need to have to be protected against the flu," Dr. John Treanor, a flu specialist at the University of Rochester Medical Center who is closely watching the work, told CBS News.

Would you volunteer to get the flu for $3,000? Is there an amount of money you would accept to be a flu test subject? Let us know in the comments or vote in our poll.


Note: 
This is not a scientific poll. It is for entertainment purposes only.


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