Volunteers gather for vaccine trial in Florida hotspot

Miami (AFP)

Heather Lieberman is betting on her acquiring immunity from the coronavirus. Sandra Rodriguez wants to work with scientists for the benefit of the community.

Both registered clinical trials for the COVID-19 vaccine in Florida, the new US epicenter of the global health crisis.

“I want to be part of history. I want to help,” said Rodriguez, a 63-year-old teacher sitting in an office at a clinical research center in northern Miami, where nurses are preparing to inject.

“I want to do good things, but I know this is a good thing. So I’m all there.”

So-called Phase 3 vaccine clinical trials-thousands in final stages-are gaining momentum in the Sunshine State.

With more than 500,000 cases and more than 9,000 deaths, Florida is the second-largest in the United States after California, making it an ideal place to conduct clinical trials.

As a result, various activities took place at the Research Center of America (RCA), a private center conducting clinical trials in Hollywood, 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Miami.

RCA is working on six potential vaccines against COVID-19. Two of them, created by Moderna and Pfizer, are Phase 3 trials.

Volunteers come one after another by reservation. They will be examined by a doctor, sign a document and get an injection.

The control group may have an vaccine or just placebo, as it needs to establish a baseline for comparison.

After that, you will be asked to wait a few hours before returning home after the expert has determined that there are no adverse reactions.

“Our experience is good. All patients vaccinated so far had no problems,” said RCA doctor and researcher Nelia Sanchez-Crespo.

She told AFP.

“They’re really enthusiastic. I’ve seen a lot more desire to attend these particular exams because people really want something more available sooner.”

-Recruitment of volunteers-

Leverman, 28, motivated by the desire to see results and the potential for them to develop immunity from deadly illnesses.

“It’s worth trying,” she said she was waiting for at RCA.

“You can’t just live in the box,” she crossed her fingers, adding that she didn’t end up in the control group.

RCA tests the vaccine daily from another lab.

The day Lieberman and Rodriguez visited the clinic, they were testing mRNA-1273 developed by Moderna and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in the United States.

Modelna, a biotechnology company that was established less than a decade ago and has never marketed vaccines or drugs, launched its national phase 3 trial on July 27.

That same day, US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech also announced that the vaccine BNT162b2 is in Phase 2 and 3 trials.

In a study conducted at dozens of clinical research centers across the country, each vaccine will be given to 30,000 people.

Most of the tests focus on California, Florida and Texas, with the US in most cases.

Volunteers sign up for a web page and wait for a call from the clinic. Everyone is welcome.

“Each trial calls for different things. We definitely want different groups,” said Sanchez Crespo, who wants to accept hundreds of volunteers each week.

RCA is looking for “healthy people, doctors, nurses, firefighters, people working at airports, restaurants, patients who are the first responders. It is very important. They are in contact with many people. She said.

But she also said that subjects in the “high risk group because of their medical problems such as diabetes, COPD, and asthma” are also needed.

-Sputnik-

In addition to the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, a third candidate developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca has begun Phase 3 trials in the West.

Two more are in the same stage in China.

Russia last week when leader Vladimir Putin announced that his country’s vaccine, named “Sputnik” after the pioneering Soviet satellite of the 1950s, would provide “persistent immunity” from the coronavirus, Surprised the world.

Putin said 20 countries have ordered 1 billion doses, but approved clinical trials have not yet been completed.

The news was skeptical of many Western scientists who feared Russian researchers were holding back.

So far, the US has invested more than $10 billion in six vaccine development projects and has signed agreements to guarantee delivery of hundreds of millions of doses.

“We have had a lot of excitement in this exam.

© 2020 AFP