I've been accepted on the COVID-19 Vaccine Trial

[roses2]

I've been offered a place on the COVID-19 trial being run by Imperial College.

I'm a little nervous and still debating whether or not to accept. I'm female, BAME and I have two children.

Help me make a decision! What should I do?

[raffegiraffe]

So proud OP.
I think it's an adenovirus with the Corona spike protein. It's def not a live attenuated. The Oxford team did lots of work on the potential SARS vaccine so this isn't from scratch
I have everything crossed for you.

[AnotherEmma]

OP you are awesome, thank you for doing this!

[BakedCam]

Good luck, @roses2

[LynetteScavo]

Thank you. I'm glad someone is prepared to do it. I'm a big baby so wouldn't want to, but am very grateful to you @roses2

[maria860]

Your very brave to consider it in the first place I wouldn't but someone has to. Weigh it all up I hope it works and you end up immune fingers crossed

[Breadandroses1]

I would definitely do it if I didn't think there's a good chance I'd had it already. Good luck!

[Girlymom2]

So brave OP thank you for volunteering!! I’m way up North of England so too far away from any sights. I definitely will be following your journey! 😄

[mynameiscalypso]

Well done OP; really interested to follow what happens if you're happy to update.

[stuckindoors77]

Really interesting, keep us posted!!

[MarshaBradyo]

Good on you op

[Nanalisa60]

Good for you, let us know how it goes!!
What you are doing is awesome.

[HeavenlyEyes]

Amazing - well done. So impressed.

[terrigrey]

I wouldn't if I had children.
BAME is a very high risk category- I'm BAME too and I would love you to get a vaccine for our community - but I think is a big risk and I would hate for you to regret it.

Easy for the other poster to say 'thanks and go for it' when they are not risking anything.

[roses2]

I thought I would update to say I decided this morning to decline the trial for two main reasons:

1. One month of animal testing has taken place but there are no research papers / news interviews providing any feedback of how these trials went; what we observed
   
2. With social distancing measures in place the likelihood of this trial identifying if the vaccine is successful or not seems flawed and my participation is unlikely to be helpful in the results. A better for would be e.g. a supermarket worker or a nurse
   
   
3. was the main reason. I would have been happy to participate if I could understand what the outcome was on the mice they've tested but they aren't publicising that for whatever reason.
   
   Anyhow thanks all for your input! It was really great to bounce ideas off you all.

[FTMF30]

Thanks for updating us OP. It's great that you considered it carefully instead of blindly going for it.

[roses2]

No worries :). It was really interesting researching this and certainly not a waste of the several hours I already put into this.

One of the requirements of the trial was that I cannot use public trnasport to go to/from appointments - I need to go in my own car.

It feels like the trial is biased already. If I am wfh, not using public transport, only going out for a walk once a day then of course there is a low likelihood that I'll develop coronovirus. At the end of the study, with social distancing mesasures still in place, how on earth do they prove that I didn't get coronovirus because the vaccine was protecting me?

[FuzzyPuffling]

Wouldn't they be looking to see if you had produced antibodies in your blood, rather than whether or not you catch CV19?

[Slattery]

But they’d be looking for antibodies, not necessarily to see whether you catch it or not?

Or they’d expose you to the virus on purpose to see if you caught it.

[BBCONEANDTWO]

I think you're brave for doing it and the money being offered is definitely not enough.

[Motorina]

That's why they split you into two groups - one who gets the real vaccine, and one who gets the meningitis vaccine. Then they look at infection rates in each of the groups.

If there's a clear difference, it suggests the vaccine is working.

But, yes, the lockdown is an issue. Ideally they would test the vaccine in a population the disease is rampaging uncontrolled, to get the clearest results, but that's obviously undesirable looking at the broader picture!

[roses2]

They said because there isn't a known cure they won't introduce the virus to a human. One of the reasons In was interested in the research on mice was to understand if they had done this and what was the outcome.

So if you're not exposed to the virus, and the probability is low due to current social distancing, how will they know if the antibodies are adequate?

[Lovely1a2b3c]

Hi OP,

It sounds like a good decision not to go ahead with the vaccine trial. However they would compare the Covid vaccine group to the Meningitis group. That way some of those recruited from each group would naturally contract Covid (even with social distancing in place) and they can see whether the Covid jab has any impact on the outcome for the Covid-jab group, compared to the Meningitis jab group.

[redbushtea]

You have made a good decision in not going ahead with the trial. There are too many weird things around this whole Covid 19 business.

[Slattery]

I'll bite - like what @redbushtea?

[BakedCam]

Your reasons for declining are perfectly reasoned and measured.