IT is the most unwelcome news of all to have contracted Covid-19, but throughout the pandemic there has been another story, of those who have put their bodies on the line to try to beat the virus. The latest initiative (ukcovidchallenge.com), championed by the UK Government’s Vaccines Taskforce, Imperial College London, the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and clinical company hVIVO, will involve 90 volunteers being paid £4500 to contract the virus. The volunteers will have a fifth of a millimetre of virus fluid dropped into their nose and be medically monitored. They will also have to undergo 17 days in quarantine.