How to Know if You Qualify for the First Experimental COVID-19 Vaccine

Here's great news for those who would like to volunteer as recipients of the first experimental vaccine for COVID-19 in the United States. 

The US Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease announced on Wednesday, and volunteers can already register and participate in "four large-scale studies" they launched.

The agencies mentioned, International Business Times reported, have designed the new COVID-19 Prevention Trials Network or COVPN website where people can sign up to participate in the trials for the COVID-19 vaccine.

To join the trials, volunteers need to fill out a set of questionnaires that, as IBT reported, "shall be matched" and nearest to the study site.

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Not All Registrations Guarantee Acceptance to the Trials

The basic questionnaire consists of necessary information like the job of volunteering individuals, race, and habits to evaluate their likelihood of contracting COVID-19.

Registering gives no guarantee though, acceptance to the program as some of the volunteers may not be qualified if they are not considered "subjects for the experiments."

According to the medical expert leading the vaccine trials, Dr. Carl Fichtenbaum, they need "people who are black and brown," as well as those representing communities more hardly hit by this global health crisis.

Additionally, scientists also volunteering individuals who are actively participating in their community organizations and churches, or those working at meatpacking factories and plants, the workplaces considered as high-risk.

Researchers also prefer the age of 40 percent of the volunteers to be more than 65 years who currently have underlying health conditions such as obesity, lung disease, hypertension, and diabetes since they are the susceptible people who may easily get infected with COVID-19.

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Moderna-Made Vaccine

Reports said the vaccine is arriving from Massachusetts-based biotech firm, Moderna. More so, Fichtenbaum is leading the study to be conducted at the University of Cincinnati Health.

Meanwhile, Dr. Carlos del Rio and Dr. Richard Novak are leading the tests at Atlanta's Emory University and Chicago's Univesity of Illinois, respectively.

Essentially, the study sites are set to coordinate with the Fred Hutchinson Center Research Center's Dr. Larry Corey. Relatively, scientists will be collaborating, too, with the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Dr. Kathleen Neuzil, Emory University's David Stephens, and University of North Carolina's Dr. Myron Cohen.

The HHS's main objective is to have over a hundred vaccine experiment sites across the nation with volunteers from 10,000 to 30,000 signing up. The doctors leading the study said they are planning to start the trials by late this month or early next month.

A Key Element to 'Operation Warp Speed'

Fichtenbaum also told the volunteers that they "will be part of something special" no matter what the result will be. It is a very vital scientific result or answer, he added, as they, as experts in the field, should know what's useful and what's not.

In a press release, Alex Azar, HHS secretary, said that instituting a unified clinical test network is "a key element" of the Operation Warp Speed of the Trump government, aiming to provide considerable quantities of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine by January 2021.

Beginning summer this year, the secretary added, the new trial network will leverage current infrastructure and involve communities to protect the thousands of volunteering individuals needed for the latter phase of clinical tests of promising COVID-19 vaccines.

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