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By Steve Stecklow
LONDON, Nov 12 (Reuters) - So why did I volunteer to be
injected with an experimental vaccine for COVID-19? That's what
some of my friends wanted to know when I told them what I was
doing.
"Who knows about the long term," texted a former college
roommate. "Seems like a gamble."
It all began in July when the British government announced
it was seeking lots of volunteers for large-scale clinical
trials of new vaccines. Only a month before, a good friend of
mine here had died of COVID-19 after spending weeks on a
ventilator.
Curious, I completed an online form, figuring I wasn't
committing myself to anything.
In late September, an email informed me that I was among
more than 250,000 "pioneers in the fight against COVID-19" who
had enlisted in the cause. On Oct. 1, I was invited to apply for
a trial of a vaccine made by an American biotech company called
Novavax Inc. It was seeking at the time up to 10,000
volunteers in the United Kingdom for a late-stage trial to
determine the vaccine's safety and effectiveness.
"If you are aged 18-84 and in good health, you could be
eligible to participate," the email stated. "The study involves
six visits over a period of around 13 months. Reasonable travel
expenses will be reimbursed."
Now, it was time to decide. I began researching the Novavax
vaccine, which has received less attention than several others.
On Monday, Pfizer Inc announced its COVID-19 vaccine
candidate appeared to be more than 90% effective. In September,
late-stage trials of a vaccine developed by the University of
Oxford and AstraZeneca Plc were halted after a report of
a serious neurological illness in a volunteer, although the
trials later were permitted to resume.
To me, the Novavax vaccine seemed less risky. Although the
Maryland-based company has never received approval for a
vaccine, it's employing the same technology to create its
COVID-19 candidate that it used with a promising flu shot. I've
gotten inoculated against the flu every year for decades and
never once had an adverse reaction.
The published results of the first phase of testing the
Novavax vaccine also showed no serious side effects among more
than 100 participants who were injected with it. The worst case
was someone who had a mild fever for a day.
I decided to go for it. I figured if life is ever going to
return to normal, the world is going to need vaccines and
volunteers to see if they work. On a selfish level, I liked the
idea of getting inoculated as soon as possible, given how
monotonous – and sometimes scary – my daily routine had become.
I've become so risk-averse that my wife has called me her
"jailer."
Another attraction: If I were to catch the virus, the
researchers would carefully monitor me. In the UK, where there
has been a surge in new COVID-19 cases to more than 20,000 a
day, infected people essentially are on their own unless they
require emergency care.
Of course, there was a 50-50 chance I would be injected with
a placebo – a saline solution – that wouldn't protect me against
anything. In testing vaccines, placebos are used as a control to
see whether the real thing is more effective at fending off the
virus.
And so, after an online and over-the-phone screening to
determine if I had any medical conditions that disqualified me
from the study, I was given an appointment for the first of two
injections.
I showed up one recent morning at the clinical research
facility at King's College Hospital in south London – a small,
drab building that is part of a sprawling medical complex. To my
surprise, the receptionist asked me to take off my "Churchill
Pro" bike mask – which costs $33 and uses "British Military
Filtration Technology" to block "almost 100%" of viruses – and
replace it with a cheap, disposable one. I later learned this
was because my super-duper mask potentially could be
contaminated.
Several other volunteers were already in a large room
getting set up. I met privately with a doctor who asked if I had
any questions. I had a few: "What if the Novavax vaccine proved
so successful that the trial was stopped? Would I be told
whether I received the placebo and, if so, be given the real
vaccine?" The doctor told me that if I had gotten the placebo, I
would have to wait a year, since the researchers would want to
keep monitoring every trial participant. Not what I wanted to
hear.
"What if another vaccine is approved first and I was given
the placebo? Would I be allowed to take that?" The doctor
suggested that was possible.
After I signed a consent form to participate in the trial,
she gave me a brief physical exam. Back in the large room, a
nurse gave me a COVID-19 test, sticking a long swab up my throat
and then through a nostril. Then he prepared to draw my blood. I
warned him my veins were thin and often proved problematic. He
proceeded to fail twice before calling over a colleague who had
better luck.
The injection itself was uneventful. But when the nurse
checked my blood pressure afterward, it had spiked. He asked me
to wait a few minutes and basically calm down. I thought about
the meditation exercises I had always scoffed at but had
recently tried to reduce pandemic-induced anxiety – breathe in,
breathe out. It worked.
So far, I've experienced no side effects and am awaiting a
second injection once three weeks have passed. Curious about my
experience, I spoke to James Galloway, a senior clinical
lecturer at King's College who is the doctor responsible for my
trial.
He told me that no decisions have been made on what to do
with volunteers who received the placebo if Novavax is shown to
be effective or another vaccine is approved first. He later
added, "If we get another vaccine that works, we'd want people
to get that vaccine if they've had the placebo."
"We don't want anyone to suffer from participating in the
study," he said.
A spokeswoman for Novavax later told me volunteers would
discuss their options with the clinicians overseeing the trial
sites.
Galloway said there's a theoretical risk if someone who got
the Novavax vaccine is injected with a different one. "There's a
chance you'd have a reaction."
He doesn't know how the UK Novavax trial is going so far
because he doesn't have access to the data. But overall, he
remains optimistic that effective vaccines against COVID-19 will
arrive.
As it happens, the 42-year-old doctor contracted COVID-19
himself last spring. He said he had a fever for 10 days and was
briefly hospitalized after developing a heart rhythm problem. "I
wouldn't wish it on anyone," he said.
(reporting by Steve Stecklow, editing by Janet McBride)
