Brigham And Women's Coronavirus Vaccine Volunteer Wants To Be 'Part Of The Solution'
BOSTON (CBS) - Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital said Thursday that the trial for Moderna's coronavirus vaccine is going well so far.
The Brigham is one of 90 sites helping Moderna follow more than 28,000 volunteers receiving the vaccine across the country. There are several hundred participants in Boston.
One of those volunteers, Anthony Shivers, said he's taking part because of the virus' impact on minority communities.
"I participated, I'm ok. I don't know as far as if I contracted coronavirus how the vaccine will work. But, I just want to be a part of the solution," Shivers told reporters Thursday. "And I simply say we just have to pull together, and particularly my community - the Black community, the Hispanic community - really have to embrace this, really get involved, because we're the ones that are disproportionately being affected."
The two-dose vaccine is currently in phase three of the trial and aims to have 30,000 participants soon.
"It has moved forward incredibly rapidly with both the scientific development, the [Food and Drug Administration[ reviews engagement, the IOBs, the community engagement have all been incredibly robust and quick. In terms of the issues of study conduct, the vaccines are being given, they're generally well-received," said Dr. Lindsey Baden, an infectious diseases specialist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and co-principal investigator of phase three of the study.
"The issue of side effects, when you have 20, 30-thousand people involved in a study, there's a certain amount of background health noise. And all of that is being monitored incredibly closely and there are multiple layers of safety review, including all the way up to the [Data and Safety Monitoring Board] that I mentioned, and no patterns of concerns have been identified."
The health of the participants will be monitored for two years.
Last week, Moderna's CEO Stephane Bancel said its vaccine won't be available to the general public until next spring.