CINCINNATI — After fighting the pandemic for months, researchers nationwide, including at the University of Cincinnati, are asking for volunteers to take part in the third phase of a potential COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna.
Researchers need 30,000 volunteers nationwide to take part in the trial, including 500 from the Tri-State.
The way this phase of vaccine development works is volunteers will receive two doses of the potential vaccine, and researchers will track the health of the participants via an app downloaded on their cell phones. Participants will continue to have their health monitored for two years.
"Our hope," Dr. Carl Fichtenbaum, a UC professor of clinical medicine and division of infectious diseases, said, "is that the vaccine will produce some proteins that look very much like the COVID-19 virus, and that the body will have an immune response that will be protective from infection or serious disease.”
The University of Cincinnati is one of 89 sites across the United States selected to take part in this phase of the trial.
In order to volunteer for the trial, you must be 18 years old or older, you can't have COVID-19 and you can't take any drugs that could suppress your immune system.
Fichtenbaum also said local researchers have been reaching out to local Black and Hispanic community leaders to try and get more people from populations that have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 to participate in the trial.
"The kinds of targets we're interested in... is having about, at least 30 percent of our study be from underrepresented populations so that they have a chance to participate," Fichtenbaum said.
If you are interested in taking part in the trial, you can call researchers at UC at 513-245-3417 or email them at uccovidresearch@uchealth.com.
