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COVID-19 Vaccine
Health & Wellness: Two Local Residents Volunteer for Testing BY Jack Kirven | qnotes contributor
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COVID-19, review and fter only nine months signing of consent forms, there are already mulweight, height, body tiple potentially-viable vacmass calculations, blood cines available around the drawing, and finally, my world to inoculate people one and only injection. against the novel coronaAfter the injection, virus. Some have been fast I was monitored for 30 tracked by the Food and minutes for reactions. Drug Administration for The process took four usage in the United States, hours. I have had two with 100,000,000 doses follow ups, both included being shipped to all the signing updated consent states across the nation. forms and my blood samThe logistics of distribution ples being drawn. Twice are complex, and various weekly I sign into my jurisdictions are still trying StudyHub app, and reply to formulate parameters for to questions concerning deciding who gets the shots any COVID-19 symptoms. first. But in the midst of all Thank goodness, I have this, there are people exClinical trial volunteers have helped make the fast-track to the introduction of not had symptoms. pressing concern about the vaccines to combat COVID-19 a reality. PC: The study requires speed with which the medi(Photo Credit: Lubo Ivanko via Adobe Stock) in-person medical ofcine was invented, and who fice visits, five-minute are saying they won’t take it telephone check-ups even once it is available. how the vaccines were tested, this author and entering data via a phone application. This raises the question: How do reached out to two local residents who Study requires the completion of a total people who have already been through participated in the trials. of seven scheduled in-person visits, and the trials feel when they hear that people One volunteer, Paola Corcoran, is a about 24 safety telephone calls over apstill want to wait until others have taken CIS-female upper-level executive for a proximately 25 months. The first two visits it? Have these volunteers not already large financial services company. The othwere four weeks apart (mid-September been through that process on behalf of er who replied, Daniel Sams, is a CIS-male 2020 and mid-October) for first shot and the wider public? To understand better small business owner who is very active second shot. The in-person visits after the in the LGBTQ community. Even with their first two visits are months apart. relatively divergent backgrounds, their experiences were largely similar, and this JK: Once you had the injections, did you will hopefully address concerns people notice any responses in your body? If may have about race, class and gender in yes, what were they? terms of how the vaccine trials worked. DS: I had no response to the injection site, nor did I feel any side effects. I strongly Jack Kirven: How did you come to parbelieve I received the placebo. ticipate in the vaccine trials? How did PC: For me there were no side effects you hear about them? noted. Daniel Sams: I responded to an advertisement for participants on Facebook, about JK: Have you ever learned whether you five months ago. A recruiter from Wake got the vaccine or a placebo? If they Research contacted me in September don’t tell you, how do you know wheth2020. er you should get more injections? Paola Corcoran: I read an article in The DS: That’s a very good question. The New York Times that discussed how candiJohnson & Johnson Phase 3 ENSEMBLE dates were being recruited for the vaccine Trial of its Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine trials. The article contained a link to the Candidate is a single shot, unlike the other “COVID-19 Prevention Network” (coronacandidates. viruspreventionnetwork.com). I went to My motivation for participating was the aforementioned link and took a survey in hopes of getting vaccinated as soon under the website’s “CoVPN Volunteer as possible. I work at Legends Nightclub Screening Registry.” After a month and a Complex in Raleigh, N.C. As owner of the half, I got a call from a company (Javara BOXER AND BRIEF gear store within the Research) that was carrying out the study club, I’m in constant contact with people, for Moderna, and they explained the proand wanted to set an example by joining cess and what the study entailed, at which this study. point I agreed to participate. Five days after the injection, I had a COVID-19 antibody test through LabCorp. JK: There are multiple companies develThe results were negative for COVID-19 anoping vaccines — which one did you do? tibodies. I learned afterward that five days DS: Johnson & Johnson Phase 3 ENSEMBLE does not allow enough time for antibodies Trial of its Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine to build. I had a second COVID-19 antibody Candidate in the U.S. test over a month later. Those results were PC: Moderna — mRNA-1273 vaccine. negative for COVID-19 antibodies. I strongly believe I received the placebo. JK: When did you do the session? Was PC: No, not yet. We were informed that there only one? If there were follow once the Moderna vaccine is available for ups, how often did they happen, and general use, participants can ask to be what were they for? unblinded to figure out if they want to be DS: At 1 p.m. on Monday, Oct 5, 2020, I had my first meeting at Wake Research in Raleigh, N.C. They conducted my intake see Vaccine on 14 screening, which included a test for
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Dec. 25, 2020 - Jan. 7, 2021
