novavax vaccine trial - anyone else?

[Frazzled2207]

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

You won't get paid here, because it's unethical, and might skew results, by giving people an incentive to lie about their medical eligibility to be part of the trial. You only have to think about what happened in the US with contaminated blood because donors there are paid.

DS was part of a research trial into infant food allergies, for which the follow up was a whole series of pin-prick allergy tests, even though he had no symptoms. They gave him a £5 voucher at the end (he was mightily chuffed, as he was 9!) but explained why they couldn't have told him beforehand that it was going to be paid.

They still swab even if you have no tonsils. The nurse who did my swab said she couldn’t see my tonsils (which is worrying in itself as I’ve definitely still got them) so she just swabbed in their vicinity.

Totally agree @Lemonsole.

I'm in a trial, booster jab in 2 weeks. The trial I'm in is taking 500 overall.

DH and I have our appointments tomorrow, hoping we can also have our first dose directly after the health check.
I'm quite nervous, I'm the most risk averse person so this is most unlike me but I've been so vocal about the need for vaccines, particularly with my mother who's a Q disciple, that I thought I had better put my money where my mouth is.
Glad to find this thread, I feel less apprehensive now

I had the initial phone conversation today and I'm going next Wednesday for the first jab!

Interested about it all. I'm wondering whether I should tell my workplace (I'm a teacher)

@BG2015
I Don’t think you need to.

I was quite interested in the logistical complexity of it all. At our session there were maybe 10 docs and 30-40 nurses present. Most had been sent to help out at the trial from their usual day jobs which no doubt puts the NHS under even more strain (But obviously this is very very important)

@WappersReturns. I believe unless theres a problem after the health checks and swabs then you'd have your blood test followed by injection.

Thats what my 9 page document said.

Thank you all so much for doing this.

This thread has made me feel hopeful and even a bit excited.

@Torvean32 ah that's good. I felt like mine was a little ambiguous on that point but it looks like that's the norm then.
Now just hoping we get the vaccine and not the placebo.
I feel as though I will be analysing any side effects for possible clues as to which we received

@WappersReturns, i think its so cool that you , and your husbabd are taking part. I'd be totally comparing everything if somebody i knew was taking part.

Yeah we're thinking there's a chance one of us might get the vaccine and one the placebo so we'll definitely be on the look out for differences! It would be so interesting to have a direct comparison in one household, obviously all speculative of course as we won't really know what we had till the end of the trial, but interesting nonetheless.

Well 48 hours on and I’m not had any side effects at all and am convinced I was given the placebo!

Still important though-
Drug’s wouldn’t get approved unless many people got the placebo.

I think I may have had the placebo too @Frazzled2207 I didn't feel anything at all when the injection was done and DH felt brief numbness and his arm feels different whereas mine feels completely normal.
Both feeling fine thus far.

@Frazzled2207

Well 48 hours on and I’m not had any side effects at all and am convinced I was given the placebo!

Still important though-
Drug’s wouldn’t get approved unless many people got the placebo.

Absolutely every test counts. I dont want to assume what i got. I was kept in the room after for longer as my heart rate went up, as did my temp by a little bit. I ended up being there for about 2 1/2 hours.

Managed to get an ultrasound referall and a letter to my gp to do bloods too. All unrelated to the study.
Free MOT.

Sadly no cups of tea or biscuits.

But a free ruler, thermometer and 3 home swab kits.

Apart from the 3 attempts to get blood. I'd say the worse bit was the throat swab. The nasal one didn't bother me at all.

Didn't get to see how many staff involved as everything was done in the 1 room, until you go into the recovery room.
So i saw a consultant dr, and about 4 nurses.All very nice.

This is like symptom spotting in the 2ww. I know it doesn't mean anything but can't stop myself doing it!

Can I ask what the next step is after the vaccines? Are you all then exposed to the virus and it’s a case of see who gets unwell and who doesn’t?

Or is it antibody checks sometime after to see if they are present? But if that’s the case why the need for placebos? Or are they just looking for side effects from the vaccine?

I find vaccination trials fascinating, just wondering how they work, what they are checking for etc etc

No, we're not exposed to the virus, and that's one of the issues for national lockdowns and vaccine trials. A lot of people on the Novavax trial have underlying health conditions so it wouldn't be ethical to expose them to the virus.

After the (next) bigger dose (3w after the first) we get antibody tested again - our antibodies should be exponentially higher than someone who has had COVID.

In terms of the placebo - side effects, yes, but also because in the local sample of 500 candidates you could expect that there would be some level of exposure to COVID. I guess their hope is that a higher % of the placebo group will test +ve and no one in the live group will.

andadietcoke - thanks for explaining

agree no exposure to the virus (other than normal!) however I still don't quite understand how vaccines can be approved without this step.
However the doc did say that they will be able to tell enough from our blood samples to see if we (those who were given the live vaccine) end up with enough antibodies to fend off the virus. But how this can be put to the actual test is not quite sure.
I think in part this is vaccine is more about bolstering your immune system's reaction to getting covid more than making it 100% certain you won't get it.

I didnt think there was a lot of ppl with underlying illneses in our study. We volunteered from radio/ social media. So no notes pre-checked.

I get my second vaccine 2 weeks after my first.

Hows everyone feeling.

I had my vaccine yesterday. Feel quite achey today but ok apart from that.

Good to read about people's experiences in this trial, as I registered my interest in this trial. I received an email earlier in the week to apologise for the delay and told me to wait for further details. I might be called at some point, but I had a seasonal flu jab privately today, so this may disqualify me for this trial, as I understand that some of the novavax vaccine/placebo jabs have seasonal flu vaccine... Anyway, good luck to everyone who is participating!

Woventabby they asked me about my flu jab and as it was more than 7 days ago that I got it I was told it was fine.

I spoke to them on Wednesday for a brief assessment and go next Wednesday for my first appointment.

You have to have had the flu jab at least 7 days before the 1vaccination. Then you cant have it until a week after the second jab.

So I'm waiting til the middle of November at earliest.

The flu vacc is not part of the trial though as you wouldn't have ppl potentially getting 2 doses of the flu
The placebo is an injection of saline.

I know one of the data basis originally appealing for ppl, were too late in sending the initial questionnaire and passing on details to the testing clinics . Therefore some ppl were not given the chance to take part.

I'm lucky as i contacted the clinic and didn't wait. I've done other tests. This one is just so important that i really, really wanted to take part.

Is everyone else doing the follow up with the App.