Albany – Liberal Manhattan State Sen. Brad Howellman is one of thousands of Americans who entered a moonshot trial to develop a safe coronavirus vaccine, which announced Pfizer’s bombshell COVID-19 shot this week.
“I’ve always been a pro-vaccine policymaker, so I thought it was time to put your money where your mouth is,” the 55-year-old Democrat told The Post.
Howellman was admitted to the study in August – the pharmaceutical giant operates it with the NYU Langone Hospital system – and after blood work he felt two shocks that it was negative for coronavirus antibodies.
The legislator has no vaccine that he has received a vaccine or placebo, which is standard practice in experiments designed to test the effectiveness of vaccines and drugs.
Either way, she needs to fill out a symptoms online diary, reporting any symptoms or irregularities to clinicians.
The study will run for two years and Howellman will return to the lab in February for a second blood draw and analysis.
However, the preliminary results released by the company are so promising that health officials hope they can start distributing the vaccine to the required workers – like doctors, cutters and nurses – as early as the end of the year.
When Fiber announced early Monday morning that it had been developing the vaccine for months with Biontech, it was more than 90 percent effective.
The news brought bad hopes in the fight against Covid-1, which is infecting more than 100,000 Americans in a single day, and an epidemic in the country in March killed about 240,000 Americans.
Placebo or Vaccine – Howellman told The Post that he experienced some side effects in the early days of receiving the first shot, including a headache, although he admitted that he suffered from migraines.
Symptoms became more severe with the second shot and included fever, nausea, and a week of fatigue.
“It’s nothing serious, but you think you have a flu brush.”
The legislator said he joined the study after hearing state and national “pushbacks” on television linked to news and vaccine development – arguing that while he believes in the trial process, scientists are still waiting for the final, foolproof product. .
“It simply came to our notice then [the drug’s] Safety and effectiveness and that is why I am in this trial. I trust medical professionals, ”he said.
About 150 individuals are currently enrolled in the local Pfizer trial, according to Mark Mulligan, MD, director of the NYU Langone Vaccine Center.
The Center first received federal and state approval last spring, giving them the green light and returning on May 4.
“It’s very beautiful to see the next six months,” Mulligan told The Post in a phone interview.
“We are in this medical crisis – a global epidemic – so we are working very hard because we think people are dying and we need to move very fast. Generally, we do not proceed at such a pace, as most vaccines take five, 10 years or sometimes longer. But the effectiveness data in just six months is really phenomenal, ”he said, adding that they have been conducting vaccine studies for 26 years now.
“As a therapist and scientist, I’m interested in what the data says. We are very careful – although due to the crisis we are moving very fast we are not cutting any corners.
“So far about 44,000 people have received the Pfizer vaccine, and safety remains. I think people should have faith that this is a safe vaccine. I think it is likely to catch on and it will become a safe vaccine. This is all about clinical research. “
NYU Langon is currently working to register for the COVID-19 vaccine trial developed by the British-Swedish drug company AstraZeneca, and hopes to get at least 1000 participants.
Additional reporting by Nolan Hicks
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