Back in April, I volunteered to take part in the COVID-19 vaccine trial at Oxford University. At the time, the UK had just gone into lockdown and taking part in the trial felt like something positive that I could actually do in the face of a global pandemic. The research was being conducted in a public university and so I also felt that I was contributing to the discovery of a vaccine that might one day be a global public good.
I was in an initial group of 1,112 volunteers. The University randomly divided our group into two, so that half were given the actual Covid-19 vaccine that is being tested, while the other half received a placebo. None of us knew whether we received the vaccine or placebo. There is a particular group of ten volunteers who received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, and they know it.
The trial will test whether Oxford University’s vaccine can protect healthy people from the COVID-19 virus. It will also give the researchers valuable information on the safety aspects of the vaccine and its ability to generate good immune responses against the virus. After the initial inoculation, I have to go in for regular blood tests and to also provide any information on any symptoms that I develop. I will continue to be monitored until October when the researchers hope to be able to draw some conclusions from the trial.
