BY MATÉ ESPINA
JOHNSON and Johnson will start their third phase of the clinical trial for COVID-19 vaccines in Bacolod City by next week. The city’s Emergency Operations Center is tasked to look for 500 volunteers to sign-up for the trial that is expected to last for a month or so.
La Paz District in Iloilo is also part of the clinical trial along with Metro Manila and Laguna.
Dr. Adonis Guancia, their principal investigator in the trial here, said they also want those with comorbidities who are 40 years old and up to take part in the sample group.
Of course there is uncertainty to volunteer because of the stories you hear about side-effects and even death in clinical trials in Europe and the US. Since bad news is big news, these stories get more space in media and spreads like wildfire in social media.
This is also the first time that a vaccine is being rolled out in less than a year when it normally takes five to 10 years to produce such.
This pandemic has affected all of us and we cannot afford to remain ignorant of efforts to curb it. Personally, since my trust in our government is very low with regards to COVID-19 management, I will have to rely on research and other literature that talks about it.
And so, after reading extensively on the J&J’s trials in other countries, I texted a friend in the EOC that if there are no takers for the clinical trial, I’d like to sign-up for it.
I am for vaccination and have in fact asked friends that are trying to procure Astra Zeneca vaccines to include me and some family members in their list. But with the delay and the politics in procurement, I suppose that will not come in sooner than we want it.
Yesterday, I was listening to a media friend who discouraged the public from volunteering for the trial. I chatted with him on the side and told him that I am signing up for the trial even with the obvious risks involved, in the name of science.
Our country has recorded over 10,000 deaths already with over half a million infected. Globally the figures stand at over two million deaths and more than 100 million infected. Recovery rate at the global level is also at a low of just a little over 50 percent while it is much higher in our country.
We’ve read of the Pfizer vaccine trial in Norway that is still being investigated whether it did cause the death of elderly volunteers that were part of the sample groups. I saw that story being posted and shared in social media. But further readings about that story showed that up to now, there is no real evidence that the deaths were a direct cause of getting vaccinated.
In the J&J trial, Dr. Guancia allayed fears saying their vaccine is safe and it’s the same pharmaceutical firm that developed vaccines being used for the deadly Ebola virus and other varians of SarsCov.
EOC chair and City Administrator Em Ang on the other hand said this trial will give significant contribution to developing the vaccine and will help evaluate the safety and efficacy of it.
In international news, the J&J vaccine which is being developed by Janssen Pharmaceutical and has a potential of being rolled out as a single dose vaccine, has shown a 90 percent efficacy.
“After a single dose vaccination, data showed neutralizing antibodies against COVID-19 were detected in over 90 percent of study participants at Day 29 and 100 percent of participants aged 18-55 years at Day 57. These neutralizing antibodies remained stable through Day 71, currently the latest timepoint available in this ongoing study, in all participants aged 18-55 years,” the article that was also published in the New England Journal of Medicine said.
J&J’s progress is being closely watched by top infectious disease experts because its vaccine has the potential to become the first that can protect people after just one shot, making mass-vaccination campaigns much easier. The company expects to get definitive efficacy data from a final-stage study by early next month, potentially leading to regulatory authorization by March, the article said.
That is a comforting thought to me at least and which is why I decided to sign-up for the clinical trial. Of course it remains to be seen whether I will be chosen to be among the 500 volunteers.
This J&J vaccine gives me better hope than China’s Sinovac which is being pushed by our government. In a recent report, the CoronaVac being developed by Sinovac pharma shows an efficacy rate of only 50.4 percent in their Brazil clinical trials. This is much lower than the efficacy rate of the vaccines developed by Pfizer, Moderna or Astra Zeneca which stands at over 90 percent.
There have been many reports as well that the Chinese firm lacks transparency in their study and if it is that company who will launch the clinical trial here, you would drag me by the hair to make me volunteer.
In short, it pays to know, so read, read and read./PN
