Insights from a COVID-19 vaccine trial participant

Over his 27-year career at MD Anderson, , chair of Endocrine Neoplasia and Hormonal Disorders, has played a major role in dozens of clinical trials – some of which have resulted in life-saving treatments for rare forms of thyroid cancer.

Sherman, moving from principal investigator to clinical trial participant, recently enrolled in a Phase III clinical trial of a COVID-19 vaccine.

“After years of putting patients on clinical trials and referring them for clinical trials, here was a situation where I could make a contribution as a research subject to a critical public health issue,” he says.

Confidence in the COVID-19 clinical trial process

Thông tin thiết kế đặc biệtAlthough the vaccine development process has been accelerated during the pandemic, Sherman says he didn’t hesitate to participate in the clinical trial. Before participating, he was able to read all the protocols and knew what to expect thanks to the transparency and intense scrutiny built into the clinical trial process and into medical research.

“Specifically, in the COVID-19 vaccine development, the public availability of protocols and documents has been wonderful,” he says. “The amount of peer review and scrutiny is far beyond what we typically would experience.”

Sherman says the ability to access information gave him a tremendous amount of confidence, not in the specific product as much as in the process.

Thông tin thiết kế đặc biệt After a thorough enrollment and screening history process, Sherman received an injection of the vaccine candidate in early November. Volunteers in the study received either the vaccine or a placebo shot and weren’t told which they’d received. So far, Sherman hasn’t reported any side effects in the biweekly questionnaires he fills out.

Thông tin thiết kế đặc biệtHe hopes that sharing his story of participating in a vaccine clinical trial will reassure others about the vaccine development process, especially once complete trial data is publicly reported and products begin to receive Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“There’s a lot of information available that can answer your questions and help you make an informed personal decision,” he says. “Whether a person chooses to be vaccinated or not, we’ll all continue to do what we can to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 and the risk to our immunocompromised patients.”  

Next steps for COVID-19 vaccination

Federal and state guidelines require that as long as vaccine supply is limited, the vaccine must be available to health care workers first.

MD Anderson is one of the Houston health systems selected as a pre-position site for COVID-19 vaccines that are authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use. This means we’re planning now to receive, store and administer the COVID-19 vaccine safely to employees based on role, risk and personal choice.

By offering the vaccine to health care workers first, public health officials hope to reduce everyone’s risk – patients and staff – of exposure to the coronavirus in hospitals and clinics and to ensure continued care for patients.

Until the vaccine is widely available, it’s important for everyone to continue taking precautions such as wearing a mask, maintaining social distancing and washing your handsThông tin thiết kế đặc biệt frequently. That’s true even after you receive a COVID-19 vaccine. These precautions will be necessary until public health experts advise otherwise.

Learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine.

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