Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

MADISON (WKOW) -- As the world continues to battle COVID-19, the status and eventual use of a vaccine are subjects of constant debate. In order to address questions and confusion, UWHealthofficials are going over how vaccines are tested and why they work.

For a vaccine to be approved and recommended to the public by medical professionals, it needs to pass numerous tests. Even with the urgency surrounding COVIID-19 vaccines, those protocols are still being followed to ensure any eventual vaccine is safe and effective.

Many care treatments, including vaccines, go through clinical trials. Clinical trials take place in three phases.

Several COVID-19 vaccines are now or will soon be in phase 3.

Vaccines are about preventing the disease, not treating it. A vaccine activates your immune system to produce antibodies, exactly like it would if you were exposed to the disease, but without getting you sick. Once you are vaccinated, you develop immunity to the disease without having to get the disease first.

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The COVID-19 vaccine is on track to become the fastest-developed vaccine in history, but that doesnt mean critical steps are being skipped, Ruth Karron argues.

Ruth Karron, who leads the Center for Immunization Research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, is one of the top vaccine experts in the world, serving on vaccine committees for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, and the US Food and Drug Administration.

Here, she explains where things stand in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine and how that process will unfold in the months ahead:

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Listen: How close is a safe COVID-19 vaccine that works? - Futurity: Research News

Scott Duke Kominers is the MBA Class of 1960 Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and a faculty affiliate of the Harvard Department of Economics. Previously, he was a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and the inaugural research scholar at the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics at the University of Chicago.

Alex Tabarrok is the Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

Gotta bleed the crabs now.

Photographer: Timothy Fadek/Corbis Historical/Getty Images

Photographer: Timothy Fadek/Corbis Historical/Getty Images

Weve already seen the costs of supply-chain failures during the Covid-19 pandemic: Delays in the production of simple nasal swabs slowed testing by months even as the pandemic exploded in the U.S. The world is now eagerly awaiting a vaccine, and will need billions of doses as quickly as possible. If the vaccine supply chain fails, the economic and human cost of Covid-19 will be prolonged.

The multilinked vaccine production chain will take months to set up, which means starting now. Some parts are already seeing investment glass manufacturers, for example, are ramping up production of vials. But the supply of less obvious inputs needed earlier in the chain is uncertain.

Vaccine supply chains contain some unusual links, including horseshoe crab blood, shark liver oil and an enzyme thats one of the worlds most expensive products. Other links rely on novel manufacturing processes that have not yet been implemented at scale. Each link in the chain needs to be stress-tested and strengthened. For the potential weak spots, alternative manufacturing processes need to be considered and prepared.

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Vaccines manufacturing requires a long series of biological processes, and avoiding contamination is crucial. Endotoxins, which are dangerous molecules shed by bacteria, are one source of contamination. To detect them, each batch of vaccine, along with its vials and stoppers, is tested with a substance called Limulus amebocyte lysate. The only known natural source of LAL is horseshoe crab blood which means that the supply varies year to year, and we have to be careful not to deplete the crab population. Luckily, a synthetic version of LAL has recently been developed and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European health ministry. But companies need time to validate and prepare production to be ready for a Covid-19 vaccine.

Shark livers are another surprising link in the supply chain for some vaccines. The shark liver oil squalene, which is mostly used in cosmetics and sunscreens, is part of a vaccine adjuvant a factor that accompanies a vaccine and amplifies its effects by giving an extra stimulus to the immune system. We should be able to repurpose squalene from the cosmetic market to aid in vaccine production, but it might be even better to use synthetic squalene. That can be produced under highly controlled conditions, but again, we need to prepare the production processes now. We dont want vaccine delivery to fail because we dont have enough shark liver oil.

Traditional vaccines work by exposing the bodys immune system to a virus that has been weakened or killed; then, when the vaccinated immune system meets the dangerous version of the virus, its been trained to fight back. Recently, entirely new types of vaccines have been developed that use DNA and mRNA. These vaccines copy pieces of the viruss genetic material and then program the bodys own cells to produce the immune-training antigens. This approach is faster and more standardized than traditional vaccines, and it has the potential to be especially safe because it doesn't involve exposing subjects to the virus.

DNA and mRNA vaccine technologies have shown promising results, and two of the leading vaccine contenders, from Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc., use mRNA technology. But mRNA has never been used to produce a commercial vaccine for humans, let alone at scale. And scaling these technologies may not be easy. In particular, mRNA degrades rapidly. To prevent this, it must be capped by a very rare substance called vaccinia capping enzyme.

Just over 10 pounds of this VCE is enough to produce a hundred million doses of an mRNA vaccine but the current manufacturing processes for VCE require so much bioreactor capacity that making 10 pounds would cost about $1.4 billion. More important, global bioreactor capacity cannot support production at that level while also producing other vaccines and cancer-fighting drugs.

If we work hard now, we may be able to find more efficient means of producing VCE. Expanding bioreactor production and repurposing bioreactors from existing large-scale industrial applications will also help to lessen the pressure on the supply chains for multiple types of vaccines.

Even delivering vaccines can be complicated. Vaccines made with mRNA technology must be stored at very cold temperatures, which may be especially difficult in developing countries. DNA vaccines dont need cold storage, but they require new methods of delivery such as gene guns that shoot gold bullets. We need to be developing and testing different delivery methods now.

We don't yet know which vaccine candidates will be successful. It could be the traditional vaccines, or the newer DNA and mRNA approaches, or possibly something else. We may want more than one vaccine for use in different populations the elderly, for example, might respond better to one version than another. Meanwhile, some vaccines will be more suitable for use in developing countries than others.

Because we don't know which candidates will work and because building production capacity takes time we have to shore up the supply chain for all of these different types of vaccines at once. The world economy is losing on the order of $500 billion a month due to Covid-19, so even if building out supply chains costs billions, it's a wise investment.

Of course, we might think that private companies would have incentives to coordinate supply chains themselves and to some extent, they are doing so. But many have pledged to keep their vaccine prices close to costs, both out of altruism and because they may fear public backlash (or legal action) if they're perceived as price gouging in the middle of a pandemic. And if companies dont stand to profit much from Covid-19 vaccines, then they dont have much incentive to invest in increasing capacity. In short: If prices cant rise, then the only way to encourage companies to invest more in production is to reduce their costs and that means we need public investment.

Investments in supply-chain improvements such as refining the VCE manufacturing process have aspects of a public good because they will benefit many pharmaceutical businesses at once. Public investment in those kinds of R&D is justified in normal times and even more so in todays extraordinary moment.

Supply chains failed as the pandemic began, and we can't let that happen again with vaccines. Nobody should die because poor preparation keeps us from being able to deploy lifesaving technology quickly. We have to be ready to produce billions of doses as soon as a vaccine is approved and that means we need to invest now.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the authors of this story:Scott Duke Kominers at skominers1@bloomberg.netAlex Tabarrok at Tabarrok@gmu.edu

To contact the editor responsible for this story:Stacey Shick at sshick@bloomberg.net

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

Scott Duke Kominers is the MBA Class of 1960 Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and a faculty affiliate of the Harvard Department of Economics. Previously, he was a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and the inaugural research scholar at the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics at the University of Chicago.

Alex Tabarrok is the Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

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Vaccines Use Bizarre Stuff. We Need a Supply Chain Now. - Bloomberg

The biotechnology company Novavax will soon begin the second phase of human testing for its COVID-19 vaccine.

The so-called phase 2b clinical trial will include a group of 2,665 healthy adults in South Africa, as well as a group of 240 adults with HIV who are considered medically stable but whose immune responses may differ from individuals without HIV, according to a statement released by Novavax on Aug. 17. HIV advocacy groups have pushed for people with HIV to be included in clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines, as companies like Moderna and Pfizer initially said they would exclude volunteers with the infection, Science Magazine reported.

In a previous phase 1 safety trial of the Novavax vaccine, healthy volunteers given two doses of the vaccine showed only mild side effects, such as headache, fatigue, and tenderness or pain at the injection site, according to a report posted Aug. 6 to the preprint server medRxiv. According to this preliminary data, which has not been peer-reviewed, all of the phase 1 participants also generated neutralizing antibodies, which can prevent the virus from entering cells, after receiving a second dose of the vaccine. Novavax will continue to evaluate this immune response in the phase 2b trial in South Africa, as well as a phase 2 trial to be organized in the U.S. and Australia "in the near future," according to the statement.

Related: Here are the most promising coronavirus vaccine candidates out there

"Because South Africa is experiencing a winter surge of COVID-19 disease, this important Phase 2b clinical trial has the potential to provide an early indication of efficacy, along with additional safety and immunogenicity data for [the vaccine]," Dr. Gregory Glenn, president of research and development at Novavax, said in the statement. South Africa is the world's fifth worst affected country in terms of COVID-19 cases and related deaths, with 583,653 reported cases and 11,677 deaths as of Aug. 17, Reuters reported.

The Novavax trial in South Africa will be funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is providing a $15 million grant, and The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which is providing funds to manufacture doses of the vaccine needed for the trial, according to the statement.

Related: 20 of the worst epidemics and pandemics in history

The vaccine, called NVX-CoV2373, contains proteins derived from the coronavirus spike protein, a structure that juts off the virus's surface and plugs into cells to cause infection, according to the statement. In general, Novavax designs vaccines by attaching such proteins to microscopic particles that can be delivered into the body to trigger an immune response, according to The New York Times Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker.

Novavax also added an adjuvant to the vaccine an extra ingredient that helps rally immune cells into action. Specifically, the adjuvant in NVX-CoV2373 contains a saponin, or a chemical compound derived from plants, according to the statement. Saponins can help summon immune cells to the injection site, where they spot foreign proteins, like the spike protein, and "present" those proteins to T cells; these T cells then remember what the proteins look like should a vaccinated person ever be exposed to the virus, according to a 2016 report in the journal Nature Communications.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Novavax COVID-19 vaccine enters second round of human trials - Live Science

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The U.S. now has a half-dozen purchasing agreements with vaccine makers. And there are enough committed doses to immunize 75% of the population in 2021even assuming 40% of the them fall through, according to Bernstein analyst Ronny Gal.

Even if (say) two vaccines fail/underperform in trials or manufacturing issues cause only 60% of the promised dose to be delivered, HHS [the Department of Health and Human Services] would have enough to vaccinate [about] 85% of the U.S. population on the existing commitment alone, Gal wrote in a note on Friday.

In short, as long as the entire field does not fail, vaccines will available for the U.S. to be immunized in 2021.

Gal and his colleagues wrote that there appears to be enough data on timing, volumes, and prices to take a swing at modeling the Covid-19 vaccine market. So they did just that.

Once the developed world approaches vaccination rates of 50%, demand will slow down and substantial volume will be shifted towards emerging markets, they wrote. Assuming volume in line with projections of companies to date, there would be enough capacity by [year-end] 2021 to vaccinate everyone.

In terms of revenue, Gal and team note that revenue in the initial wave is mostly predetermined due to purchasing agreements. They model for roughly $20 billion in worldwide revenue for Covid-19 vaccines in 2021, the largest portion of which will be sold by Pfizer [ticker: PFE]. Again, the dynamics here are largely driven by the Pfizers relatively higher price point and the fact that they will begin delivering doses somewhat earlier.

Beyond 2021 is a fog, according to Gal. They note it would be hard to model without, some indication of relative efficacy/safety, durability, and how much demand will exceed supply in the developed world.

For now, they assume six players will be viable competitors for some time, a booster dose will be needed every two years, and prices will decline gradually. That all considered, they project a global market of between $5 billion to $6 billion in future years. In terms of market share, the Bernstein analysts assign a higher share to Sanofi (SNY) and GlaxoSmithKlines (GSK) candidate because our expectation [is a] recombinant protein vaccine will be preferable in most instances.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) gets the second highest share for similar reasons, with the analysts noting its platform has already been validated through the Zika vaccine.

Among the remaining players, we assign equal share ...given the uncertain nature of the vaccine data to-date, they added.

Write to Connor Smith at connor.smith@barrons.com

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When Will a Covid-19 Vaccine Be Available for Everyone in the World? Analyst Says by The End of 2021. - Barron's

Philadelphia reportedly will be among of the first places to receive doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, which could become available later this year or early in 2021, and in turn the city will influence how the vaccine is distributed to the rest of the country.

Since early August, city officials have been in talks with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to develop plans for distributing a coronavirus vaccine. In addition to Philadelphia, the CDC is coordinating with four state governments to also devise distribution plans in those locations,the New York Timesreported Sunday.

The four states involved are California, Florida, Minnesota and North Dakota.

According to the Times report, Philadelphia and the states were chosen because they present unique challenges for what will be the largest vaccination campaign ever attempted by the federal government:

"Each has a different demographic, ethnic makeup and population density, as well as its own infrastructure to store and deliver doses of vaccine. State and city officials are advising the C.D.C. and the Department of Defense, which are coordinating the federal response and determining how to most efficiently deliver doses of vaccine to the individuals who are most vulnerable to Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus."

The CDC informed Philly of its selection in a letter dated Aug. 4, according to the Philadelphia Health Department.The plans developed by Philadelphia and the four states involved in the pilot program will be used to create a model for the logistics that work and do not work in distributing the vaccine.

The letter notes that there are multiple potential vaccines in development, and limited numbers of COVID-19 vaccine doses are expected to be available by the fall.The city's plan should prioritize vaccinating health care and other essential workersand the staff and residents in long-term care facilities.

Some of the potential vaccines will require that people receivetwo doses, each administeredseveral weeks apart, according to the CDC's letter, and Philadelphia's plan must a detail how health officials will remind people to come receive subsequent booster doses of vaccine.

As part ofOperation Warp Speed, the federal government's push to quicklydevelop a COVID-19 vaccine and theraputics, the Trump administration is expecting to deliver tens of millions of vaccine doses by early next year.

Until a vaccine becomes widely-available, health officials are asking the public to wear face masks and practice social distancing.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommends everyone wear face coverings when outside their homes. The masks do not protect the person who wears them; rather, they prevent sick individuals including those who do not have symptoms from spreading the coronavirus.

Since the onset of the public health crisis, Philadelphia has had 32,348 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,717 people die from COVID-19.

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Philly's participation in CDC pilot program means city will be among first to receive COVID-19 vaccine - PhillyVoice.com

Yale School of Medicine and Yale New Haven Hospital today announced the start of Phase 3 of the Pfizer vaccine trial at the hospital. This groundbreaking study is intended to be one of several vaccine trials to be undertaken in the hopes of finding the most scientifically validated vaccine in the shortest amount of time.

The study is a collaboration between BioNTech SE and Pfizer using modified RNA. This is a novel way to create a vaccine for use in humans. Rather than using the part or whole of the actual virus in an inactive form to create immunity, this vaccine candidate uses a genetic code (modified RNA) to make the body generate proteins that resemble the SARS CoV-2 virus spike protein, thereby causing development of antibodies against it. Antibodies against the spike protein, a projection from the COVID virus that allows it to attack cells and infect a person, may block the infection from taking hold if the body comes in contact with the virus. In Phases 1 and 2 of the trial, this novel vaccine has proven safe and effective in generating an appropriate immune response. This third phase hopes to show that it can prevent infection.

I am very excited that Yale New Haven Hospital and the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation (YCCI) are undertaking this novel vaccine trial, said Principal Investigator Dr. Onyema E. Ogbuagu, YNHH Infectious Disease physician and associate professor of Medicine at Yale School of Medicine. The earlier trial phases have been very encouraging showing that when injected, the vaccine is tolerated well and generates the appropriate immune response that has the potential to protect humans from COVID-19.

The YCCI Cultural Ambassadors program is playing a large role in educating the public on clinical trials, building on past success to address cultural and operational issues to encourage a diverse and underserved patient population to participate. The Cultural Ambassador program is a partnership between YCCI, the Connecticut AME Zion Churches, and Junta for Progressive Action. Created 10 years ago, this group has had great success in engaging populations of color in clinical research. When we started talking about clinical trials in our community, people of color represented only 3%6% of the participants in clinical trials, said the Rev. Elvin Clayton, pastor, Walters Memorial AME Zion Church. Now we see between 30%-50% participation, and in some trials, over 80%.

The Cultural Ambassadors are now sharing information about the Pfizer COVID vaccine trial with the goal of ensuring that the final vaccine will be effective for everyone, regardless of their cultural or ethnic background. Our community has been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, said the Rev. Dr. Leroy Perry, pastor of St. Stephens AME Zion Church. We will be working harder than ever to ensure that the underserved community has access to this clinical trial and when ready, the vaccine will be made affordable to those who are disproportionately affected.

The trial is a randomized placebo-controlled trial which means that of the planned nearly 30,000 enrollees, half will receive the vaccine and half will receive a placebo. If success is seen early on in the trial, all participants will be given the vaccine and all enrollees will be followed for two years. All participants must be healthy, willing to comply with scheduled visits and be between the ages of 18 and 85 years. To learn more about the trial or to sign up to participate, visit the Clinical Trials at Yale website.

This vaccine trial is yet another example of the importance of academic medical centers, said Dr. Thomas Balcezak, executive vice president and chief clinical officer, Yale New Haven Health. Our partnership with the Yale School of Medicine and YCCI creates opportunity to bring cutting-edge care and therapeutics to our community.

This vaccine is being developed at a record rate due to the rapid proliferation of COVID-19 around the globe. But despite the pace, there will be no sacrifice to safety, which is forefront in the minds of the research team, YNHH and YCCI. Prior to COVID-19, the fastest development of a vaccine was to inoculate against the mumps, which took four years.

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YSM and Yale New Haven Hospital to test the new COVID-19 vaccine - Yale News

A U.S. based vaccine development company is set tobegin thesecond phase of human testing for its COVID-19 vaccine in South Africa, which isin the midst ofa surge in coronavirus cases.

Novavax said in a statementthat theclinical trialswill include 2,665 healthy adults in South Africa.

The trials will also compare the vaccine's effect on 240 medically stable adults withHIV whoseimmune responses may differ from individuals without HIV.

Preliminary findings from the first trial showed people receiving the two doses generated neutralizing antibodies, which can prevent the virus from entering cells, after receiving a second dose of the vaccine.

Along with evaluating the immune response in the phase 2b trial in South Africa,Novavaxwill also organize a phase 2 trial in the United States and Australiain the near future.

In Novavax's statement, Dr. Gregory Glenn, president of research and development at Novavax said, South Africa's surgein COVID-19 cases lends importance tothe Phase2b clinical trial,with thepotential to provide an early indication of efficacy, along with additional safety and immunogenicity data for the vaccine.

South Africa is the fifth most affected country worldwide, with more than 583,000coronaviruscases and more than 11,600 deaths.

Novavax said the trial in South Africa is made possible in part from a $15 million grant from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovationsis providingmoney tomanufacture doses of the vaccine needed for the trial.

Last month, the U.S.government awardedNovavaxa $1.6 billion contract to cover testing and development ofa vaccinefor the coronavirus in the United States with the goal of providing 100 million doses by January.

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US Company to Begin Second Phase of Human Trials in South Africa for COVID-19 Vaccine - Voice of America

(Reuters) - U.S. drug developer Novavax Inc said on Friday the UK would buy 60 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373.

FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a small bottle labeled with a "Vaccine COVID-19" sticker and a medical syringe in this illustration taken April 10, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

The company and the UK government will collaborate for a phase 3 clinical trial to assess the efficacy of the vaccine in the UK population, Novavax said in a statement, but did not disclose any financial details of the agreement.

The trial will be a study in about 9,000 adults between 18 years and 85 years of age.

Novavax would partner with Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies for manufacturing the antigen component of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in the UK, it added.

The company is also gearing up to deliver 100 million doses to the United States by January after it was awarded $1.6 billion to cover testing and manufacturing of its potential vaccine in the country.

Novavax has received $2 billion in funding so far for its coronavirus vaccine, including $384 million from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

Novavax will supply the NVX-CoV2373 doses to the UK beginning as early as the first quarter of 2021, while phase 3 trial is expected to begin in the third quarter of this year, the company said.

The Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies site in the UK is expected to produce about 180 million doses annually, it added.

The United States and United Kingdom are leading a rush to strike deals with drugmakers to reserve supplies of experimental coronavirus vaccines, as the race to develop a safe and effective vaccine reaches the final stages of testing.

There are currently no approved vaccines for COVID-19, with over 25 candidates being studied in humans.

In an early-stage trial, Novavaxs vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373, has produced higher levels of antibodies in healthy volunteers after two doses than those found in recovered COVID-19 patients and the vaccine was well tolerated overall.

(This story corrects headline and first paragraph to drop reference to phase-3 trial)

Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich

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Novavax to deliver 60 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine candidate to UK - Reuters

In Central Florida, WESH 2 News has heard from people enthusiastically participating in a clinical trial to test a COVID-19 vaccine.Dr. Archana Shah, a local physician, spoke with reporter Dave McDaniel about how much of a risk these volunteers are taking.Shah is on the front line of the fight against the coronavirus, managing ventilator patients. She battles to save lives daily, knowing how many have been taken by the coronavirus already.We have 167,000 dead so far in the United States, Shah said.Her mission is treating the sick but she stresses the massive importance of disease prevention.We need some good vaccination prevention strategy, Shah said.A big part of battling COVID-19 is coming up with a safe and effective vaccine. That requires clinical trials.Elaine Jenkins and her fiance are both are participating in a local clinical trial to test a vaccine. Shah said the risks in taking part of a trial are low. She says labs are carefully selected and the process is approved and heavily scrutinized.Vaccination development is being very closely monitored by the scientific community, Shah said.For our local volunteers, that means filling out a diary and follow up visits. Any side effect or any change in even routine should be reported, Shah said.Its all to reduce the threat we are now desperately trying to slow.We do not know what percentage it will be effective, but even if it's 60 to 70% effective, we'll take it right now with all the challenges we're facing right now, Shah said. Don't have to live your lives in a mask, like we are right now, and then preventing all the deaths that we're facing right now."

In Central Florida, WESH 2 News has heard from people enthusiastically participating in a clinical trial to test a COVID-19 vaccine.

Dr. Archana Shah, a local physician, spoke with reporter Dave McDaniel about how much of a risk these volunteers are taking.

Shah is on the front line of the fight against the coronavirus, managing ventilator patients.

She battles to save lives daily, knowing how many have been taken by the coronavirus already.

We have 167,000 dead so far in the United States, Shah said.

Her mission is treating the sick but she stresses the massive importance of disease prevention.

We need some good vaccination prevention strategy, Shah said.

A big part of battling COVID-19 is coming up with a safe and effective vaccine. That requires clinical trials.

Elaine Jenkins and her fiance are both are participating in a local clinical trial to test a vaccine. Shah said the risks in taking part of a trial are low.

She says labs are carefully selected and the process is approved and heavily scrutinized.

Vaccination development is being very closely monitored by the scientific community, Shah said.

For our local volunteers, that means filling out a diary and follow up visits.

Any side effect or any change in even routine should be reported, Shah said.

Its all to reduce the threat we are now desperately trying to slow.

We do not know what percentage it will be effective, but even if it's 60 to 70% effective, we'll take it right now with all the challenges we're facing right now, Shah said. Don't have to live your lives in a mask, like we are right now, and then preventing all the deaths that we're facing right now."

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What are the risks of taking part in COVID-19 vaccine trial - WESH 2 Orlando