He signed up for a coronavirus vaccine trial using a method that’s never been used in humans. Here’s why.
(CNN) Despite all his medical knowledge, 31-year-old medical student and Ph. D. candidate Sean Doyle couldn’t know for certain all the risks of the injection he had just received in his right shoulder at Emory University Hospital. Yes, of course he was told of the potential side effects, such as soreness in his arm, a fever, malaise. But when you are among the first people in the world to receive a vaccine injection, the real answer about the risks is simply “we don’t know.”
In fact, it’s those very questions that he is helping us answer.
Sean is helping all of us figure out if it is safe, by putting up his hand first and volunteering. With that injection, Sean had become a critical part of the fastest moving vaccine trials in the history of the world, a vaccine for Covid-19.
During a pandemic, the urgency is understandable. In just a few months, the virus has spread to nearly every corner of the globe and sadly taken more lives than several wars or natural disasters combined. It is also true that no one on the planet is immune to this; such is the nature of a novel or new coronavirus. As you process all that, remember that last Thanksgiving, this wasn’t even a real concern for human beings, and not even a topic of idle conversation. And, now it is the only thing being discussed in hospitals, boardrooms and at kitchen tables every night, often by Zoom. So, yes. The urgent pace is quite understandable but we have to make sure we can sprint, while also not tripping, falling and getting hurt.
When I sat outside with Sean recently at Emory School of Medicine in Atlanta, where he is studying and I am on the neurosurgery faculty, it may have appeared to be just another meeting between student and teacher. If you looked a little closer, however, you would’ve noticed that we were sitting several feet apart, masks tucked around our necks, raising our voices a bit to make sure we could be heard. I really wanted to understand how Sean had decided to volunteer for an experimental vaccine. I wanted to understand how he processed and assessed risk. As a dad, I wanted to know what his parents thought.
It was no surprise to me that, despite the fact he hadn’t been born yet, Sean was familiar with the story of the swine flu vaccine of 1976. In January of that year, a new or novel virus began spreading at Fort Dix in New Jersey. Fearful that this new virus might cause a pandemic like the one in 1918, the United States rushed a vaccine through development. Within a year, nearly 25% of Americans had been vaccinated, around 45 million people. Without enough time to perform adequate safety trials, however, devastating side effects started to emerge. Hundreds of people developed Guillain-Barre syndrome, a paralysis that starts in the feet and slowly marches up your body. Several people also died, and for some, a fear of vaccination remains to this day.
“That was definitely a concern,” Sean told me, “potentially developing things like Guillain-Barre. It is a risk.
“With this particular vaccine, no one knows what the chances of that are. But those potential risks are outweighed, I think, by the potential benefits of this vaccine, because right now there are no great preventative measures for containing this virus.”
A bold timetable for a challenging disease
Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar focused on emerging infectious disease at the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins University, notes the timeline for this vaccine is quick compared to others. U.S. health officials have said a vaccine could be ready in 12 to 18 months — lighting speed in the world of vaccine development.
“Vaccine development is usually measured in years and sometimes even decades,” Adalja said. “And there are some infectious diseases for which we have no vaccine after decades and decades of work, like HIV or hepatitis C, for example.”
“The only way that we’re going to really contain this virus is with the vaccine,” Adalja said.
Dr. Peter Hotez, a leading expert on infectious disease and vaccine development at Baylor College of Medicine, believes the 12-to-18-month timeline may be wishful thinking.
“I can’t think of another example where things have gone that quickly,” Hotez said. The quickest vaccine ever developed was against mumps. After vaccine inventor Maurice Hilleman isolated the mumps virus from his 5-year-old daughter in 1963, it sped to market in four years.
Doing that in a fraction of the time would be a challenge, Hotez believes.
Dr. Zia H Shah, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times and in charge of health section
The best of the Muslim Times’ collection for war against Covid 19:
In this day and age understanding bacteria and viruses and developing vaccines are national security issues. In my view sizable part of every country’s defense budget should be spent in these pursuits rather than making tanks and other weapons.
For the latest news about drugs and vaccines’ trials please go to: Pharmaceutical-Technology
Kaiser Permanente launches first coronavirus vaccine trial
Corona Fear’s Cure: Chanting from the Bible and the Quran
Can You Chant from the Bible or the Quran to Bliss and Happiness?
Japanese flu drug ‘clearly effective’ in treating coronavirus, says China
Synthetic antibodies might offer a quick coronavirus treatment
The Four Possible Timelines for Life Returning to Normal
The Muslim Times Recommending Universal BCG Vaccination to Fight the Pandemic
Coronavirus: TB Vaccination Trial Started in Melbourne, Australia
The Muslim Times has the best collections in the war against Covid 19 as we are collecting from all the established sources
All of humanity are intimate neighbors: Coronavirus proves it once again
Praise be to God for the Miracle of Our Immune System
USA: 15-minute coronavirus test is here
Does the Ordinary Soap Kill Coronavirus?
Here’s a list of disinfectants you can use against coronavirus
For the number of cases and epidemiology in each country go to: WorldOMeters
Categories: Vaccine