UCHealth Looking For Coloradans To Participate In COVID-19 Vaccination Trial – CBS Denver

LOVELAND, Colo. (CBS4) More than 1,000 Coloradans will have the opportunity to be among the first recipients of a new COVID-19 vaccine. The phase three clinics trial will test the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine through UCHealth in northern Colorado.

Ideal participants in the AstraZeneca vaccination trial will be essential workers like teachers, first responders, grocery and health care workers. Some trial participants have already been identified and selected.

A total of 1,500 people will be selected, some will be given a placebo.

The trial will take place out of Loveland. However, participants are not required to be Northern Colorado residents. They must be willing to commute to the trial facilities in northern Colorado throughout the process, though.

This will give us a large group of people who will receive the vaccine or a placebo vaccine to see if its truly effective over a few weeks, a few months and up to two years, said Dr. Gary Luckasen, the principal investigator of the trial and medical director of UCHealths clinical research program in northern Colorado via written statement. The size of the group is of major importance because we can get a lot of information about the virus, the vaccine and how they interact.

UCHealth said the AstraZeneca vaccine has previously shown an ability to spark a COVID-19 antibody reaction in humans.

Unlike other vaccinations, the AstraZeneca vaccine is an adenovirus. It combines an active cold virus with a protein that is found outside of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

This is the second time UCHealth has been selected for a COVID vaccine trial In recent months, the first focused on the Moderna vaccine and was tested through the UCHealth Anschutz campus.

LINK: UCHealth COVID-19 Vaccine Trial

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UCHealth Looking For Coloradans To Participate In COVID-19 Vaccination Trial - CBS Denver