novavax vaccine trial - anyone else?

[Frazzled2207]

Have just had the call and am going tomorrow. Very excited. Anyone else doing this?

I think this is always going to be two doses. Otherwise they would have taken blood after the first dose to see if we had antibodies or not, and what level. One of the other ones at late stage is two doses too, can't remember which one - J&J maybe?

Don't they take blood again at the second dosing appointment?

It's our second dose today and I had a vague expectation that they would take bloods, but I'm not sure I've been told so.
I shall report back on the bloods.

We had no noticeable side effects from the first dose so interested to see if the second provides any clues! I don't want to feel grotty but I need clues

They don’t take blood at the second injection appointment.

@Torvean32

Thanks *@CoffeeandCroissant*, that was an interesting read.

My consultant told me that they were already stockpiling the vaccine.
If its a smaller pharmaceutical company, the charge may be less. This could set them up if they can get lab facilities capable of making the vaccine.

Do ppl think that in the UK for example ppl could be vaccinated with a different vaccine? Do all vaccines need 2 injections, or is it just Novovax?

Sorry for the million questions !

I have definitely read that at least one of the frontrunners, possibly Pfizer, needs just one injection. But it's common to have 2. Our doc explained that the first one should give you up to 80% protection short term (talking in general terms here not the novavax), then the second shoots it up to close to 100% but longer term.

No bloods done today. Just pregnancy test, general obs and a feel of my glands.
I definitely felt the injection more this time around. DH felt his less, so no more the wiser than we were

@WappersReturns

No bloods done today. Just pregnancy test, general obs and a feel of my glands. I definitely felt the injection more this time around. DH felt his less, so no more the wiser than we were

Snap. My second appointment is this afternoon. I'll be double checking the app stuff with them.

2 jabs done.
Had a mini tutorial on the app. So fingers crossed it works .
Hopefully get flu vaccine booked next.

The person whose appt was before me did not show up. Could tell the staff were not happy.

Had a great chat with assessment nurse waiting for vaccine nurse.
They said with the amount of ppl that volunteered here we could have run the study 3 times

So what is the app for? I have it but haven't used it yet

Just had appointment 3. The actual appointment with the doctor only took 10 minutes. Had to resign the consent forms as they have changed the patient criteria to allow more people to be on the trial (those with HIV etc who were previously excluded). Couple of health questions, Doctor had a feel of my lymph nodes again then took one vial of blood. That was it. Don’t go back til Feb now. She did stress that I have to ring them at the first sign of any symptoms, she said the only way the vaccine will get approval is when enough people get symptoms.

Re the injection being vaccine or placebo, I wonder whether there's such discrepancy in our reporting of who knows because it depends on their role. It's clear each site operates differently. Mine is in the very large sports hall of a university, whereas some seem to be in regular clinic type establishments.
Perhaps the injectors themselves are varied too. Some might be HCAs and some might be clinical leads in the study. Maybe that accounts for some knowing while others don't.
Just a thought. It's strange we're being told different things.

@Daftapath

So what is the app for? I have it but haven't used it yet

If you get COVID symptoms you do three swabs on three consecutive days, and complete the various bits of the app (symptoms and temperature recording). My understanding is that you ring the trial line and they tell you to swab and start the diary.

That's what I was thinking it was for. It's a shame that some of us need to get covid for them to test the vaccine really! Lockdown isn't going to help with that. We could all break lockdown and say it was for science 😄

Second visit completed. No bloods or pregnancy test this time. Prof Saralyan himself did my obs . He said they’re very positive and expecting the vaccine will be ready “soon”.

@Daftapath

So what is the app for? I have it but haven't used it yet

@Daftapath, did you sign extra consent forms to say you'd take part in the adverse effect study? If you did the nurse should have told you what to do?

@mollypuss1 i had my second appt yesterday. They made me resign my forms and said it must have been because I'd missed a bit last time. I still have a copy of the first forms and they were signed properly. What you say makes more sense.

What do they mean by needing ppl to get symptoms. I was told it was dependant on our immune response.

@JosephineDeBeauharnais

Second visit completed. No bloods or pregnancy test this time. Prof Saralyan himself did my obs . He said they’re very positive and expecting the vaccine will be ready “soon”.

Mine was second time too. I had to do another pregnancy test. I'd drank a bottle of juice before the appt. Yet I could barely pee. I think it's the mask that makes me all flustered. I ran the tap for a while and eventually managed.

Last one. For those who are taking part in the sub study on the effects of the vaccination. Is this what your page looks like? I was told there would be 2 boxes under the patient diary bit. So is yours the same or different?

I have been accepted now after applying the same time as husband. He has had both injections and I will be starting in the middle of November.

@Torvean32 mine is the same!

@Torvean32 I have signed up for the sub study but mine is to test my immune response so involves extra blood tests. I think that must be where my confusion came from, we must all be doing different sub studies. I think there are 450 people in my sub study.

@Torvean32 mine looked like that, only had to fill the first two vaccine reaction questionnaires for a week after the injection then they disappeared. I’ve only got the Flu-Plus ones now but we only fill them in if/when we get symptoms.

@Torvean32 I’m not 100% sure what she meant if I’m honest, she took blood then said something like testing the blood is helpful for checking for antibodies but we really need the required number of people to report symptoms before they can unblind the test. I’m assuming they need some people in the placebo group to catch COVID to prove the vaccine works because the vaccine group didn’t catch it??? I didn’t question her because she said it like it was obvious and I didn’t want to look daft

@mollypuss1 that's exactly it. They have a target for the number of people on the study that they need to contract COVID. Then they hope they're in the control group. Because yes, antibodies, but antibodies don't necessarily give you immunity. One of the things they asked me was whether I'd been exposed to any confirmed cases. This is the problem with lockdown and vaccine trials - they need us to be in a position to catch it and we can't if we're at home. DH is a secondary school teacher and DTs are at primary school so I suppose I still have decent exposure levels.

Thanks @Daftapath, i think i prefer my sub study. My veins dont give up blood easily. I guess there must be a few sub-studies.

@andadietcoke thanks for explaining. So nasically they'd love ppl in the control group to hang around children, university campuses and cities with high cases.