Beth Israel looking for volunteers for it’s first human trial of a COVID-19 vaccine

BOSTON — Wanted. Twenty-five subjects who want to play a part in defeating Covid-19. 

Interested parties should contact Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center. 

The Boston hospital is getting ready to launch its first human trial of a Covid-19 vaccination -- and researchers are especially interested in recruiting African-Americans and Latinos, given the pandemic has hit those communities especially hard. 

BIDMC is working with Johnson & Johnson on a vaccination. J & J's vaccine proposal is one of five to receive the blessing of the White House in what has been dubbed 'Operation Warp Speed.'

It's a fitting name, because the goal is to shrink a process that usually takes years into a matter of months. 

Peter Pitts, president and co-founder of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest in New York, thinks it can be done.

“A lot of very exciting things are happening,” Pitts said. “I think by the end of this year we should have some serious news from the FDA and by early 2021 a vaccine can actually be given to people.”

Operation Warp Speed is funneling billions of dollars to some of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies in a bid to make that happen. Pitts said that should not give the impression the compounds will sail through FDA with minimal scrutiny.

Still, he worries that despite the capacity to quickly produce 300 million doses, a sizable chunk of Americans -- out of fear, mistrust or misinformation -- may turn away from vaccination. 

“People are really cautious,” said Pitts. “I mean I’ve seen polls that say upwards of 27% of Americans won’t get a vaccine once it’s approved and that’s very dangerous.”

Dangerous, because unless a ‘herd’ level of immunity is reached, Covid-19 will likely continue to cause outbreaks -- resulting in shutdowns and other disruptions. As it is, Pitts expects Covid-19 vaccines to be doomed to perhaps annual obsolescence because evidence is emerging that antibodies to the coronavirus don’t linger. 

“Unlike other viruses (with Covid-19) you can get reinfected,” said Pitts. " And that makes vaccination even more important. Just like the annual flu every year there will have to be a new version of the coronavirus vaccine.”  

Other contenders for the Covid-19 vaccine crown are further ahead in studies than BIDMC, including Massachusetts-based Moderna. 

But if all goes well with the human safety trial, Beth Israel would move on to the next step, as well -- testing whether the vaccine actually works in humans. 

In May, BIDMC researchers proved vaccines based on the anatomical ‘spike’ of Covid-19 did protect macaque monkeys from reinfection three weeks after immunization. 

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