KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Eastern Tennessee residents are the first in the country to be vaccinated with one of the candidate vaccines for COVID-19.
The Volunteer Research Group, at a University of Tennessee Medical Center clinic, is launching human trials this week for several candidates for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Volunteers were to get injections from Johnson and Johnson’s trials on Monday. The study was born in Belgium, where they conducted small-scale trials.
“We will be part of the first organization of others to get the vaccine in the United States,” said Dr. William Smith, founder and president of the Volunteer Research Group.
Another rehearsal, Modern, will begin in Knoxville next week. It has already shown promising early effects in trials at Emory University. In the United States, they expect to check the vaccine at 30,000 volunteers to see if it works and that’s safe.
More trials will be introduced in the coming weeks and researchers expect to have more than one effective vaccine.
“Several vaccines will be needed for the world’s population to be vaccinated to prevent this pandemic. We’re not for a single winner, we’re for several winners,” dr. Smith said.
Volunteer Research still has between 4,000 and 5,000 volunteers to participate in the tests. You can get more information and log in here or by calling 865-305-DRUG (3784).
“I would have a 50% chance of getting a vaccine that might seem simply impossible to do nothing,” the doctor said. “Especially given the growing number of cases we’re seeing locally.”
Researchers rely on Tennesseens to learn their names.
“We are the voluntary state, so we must have as many volunteers as possible,” Dr. Smith said.
It takes years to create a new vaccine from scratch, but scientists are setting speed records this time, encouraged by the wisdom that vaccination is the world’s most productive hope opposed to the pandemic.
There are side effects to those related to the flu vaccine: headaches and general fatigue, as well as discomfort at the injection site.
Coronavirus was not even known until last December, and vaccine brands came into action on January 10 when China shared the genetic series of the virus.