If you want to volunteer to be part of a COVID vaccine clinical trial ...

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

here is the link:

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.coronaviruspreventionnetwork.org/[/URL]


IMHO - even if you think COVID concerns are overblown, it would be good to to enroll. After all, you may as well prove things wrong. It's import that study populations be drawn from broad, non-self selected pools of applicants.

[Nancy Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Nancy]

Think I'll pass.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

Think I'll pass.

I am with you

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

From what I hear 1/2 of the group gets a placebo. What I don't hear is if they all get exposed to covid. Suppose they get who's who wrong. I'll pass too.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

From what I hear 1/2 of the group gets a placebo. What I don't hear is if they all get exposed to covid. Suppose they get who's who wrong. I'll pass too.

No one gets deliberately exposed to COVID. That's ethically prohibited.

The studies involve creating two identical cohort populations. Matched by factors such as age, gender, ethnic background, social setting, occupational and social risk factors. In the simplest studies, one-half then gets the test vaccine, and the other half gets a placebo. The attending medical team does not know which participants have received real vs. placebo. That what makes it a double-blind study - neither the participants nor the medical team know who receives the treatment and who receives the vaccine. The double-blind concept is critical, because if 50% of the participants report improved results, but 40% of the placebo group report improvement, then it's likely that the apparent improvements in the study group are not the result of the vaccine.

In a more advanced study, the groups might be broken into tiers. So if the study is looking at effects of various dosages, the treatment group will be divided into three tiers for the treatment dosage, while the placebo group will be divided into three tiers of the placebo dosage. But when you start stratifying in that fashion, you need larger study populations to maintain statistical rigor.

**********

For myself, I figure there is little risk.
I'm in an age group where I would not be selected for testing until a vaccine had passed initial screening to verify that the vaccine likely had significant therapeutic benefits and did not cause extreme side effects. And by participating in the study I will receive more continuous medical monitoring and surveillance, at no cost to me. If I wind up in the placebo group I'm no worse off than I am now, but I will have received gratis more detailed medical care and diagnoses. If I'm not in the placebo group, I face a potential risk that I will see an adverse side effect that wasn't apparent in earlier trials. A small, but not impossible risk. The upside is that I get treated with a vaccine that confers some degree of immunity.

So thinking about it objectively, it seems to me that my downside risk isn't much different than if I didn't participate in the study, unless I was maintaining social-distancing protocols of the highest order,. But if I'm in the treatment group, there's a good possibility that I will be receiving a treatment that gives me protection benefits, before those benefits are available to others.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Jf no one is exposed to covid how will they know if the vaccine will actually work and for how long ?

[vintner Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close vintner]

Jf no one is exposed to covid how will they know if the vaccine will actually work and for how long ?

Exactly. How do they know my glass of wine isn't preventing covid if I never leave the house to be exposed?

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

Jf no one is exposed to covid how will they know if the vaccine will actually work and for how long ?

Exactly. How do they know my glass of wine isn't preventing covid if I never leave the house to be exposed?

You go about your normal life, and get exposed in your normal course of affairs. They build the cohorts taking potential exposure into account. Which means that if your personal situation is such that you have a high exposure risk, you are probably more likely to get selected for the study.

That's the way clinical trials work.

[LisaH Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close LisaH]

Jf no one is exposed to covid how will they know if the vaccine will actually work and for how long ?

Statistics analysis using data from group receiving vaccine and group receiving placebo.

[LisaH Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close LisaH]

here is the link:

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.coronaviruspreventionnetwork.org/[/URL]


IMHO - even if you think COVID concerns are overblown, it would be good to to enroll. After all, you may as well prove things wrong. It's import that study populations be drawn from broad, non-self selected pools of applicants.

Thanks! I signed up...

[jackio Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close jackio]

Thanks! I signed up...

You are brave. Thank you!