Courier Country residents can take part in Covid vaccine trials

Residents in Tayside are being invited to register their interest to take part in local Covid-19 vaccine trials.

There are a number of Covid vaccines currently being identified and safety tested and now NHS Tayside is offering members of the public the chance to contribute to the important work in finding a cure.

The NHS Covid-19 vaccine research registry allows people to sign up to be contacted by researchers who are working on vaccine studies supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

Researchers are looking for people from all backgrounds and ages, including individuals with or without existing health conditions, to take part in studies to make sure that any vaccines developed will work across a whole population.

Anyone aged 18 or over living in the UK can join the registry.

Those who sign up will be asked to provide contact details and answer a series of personal and basic health screening questions.

The service is highly secure, with personal details held in a NHS system managed by NHS Digital, the national organisation responsible for IT in the health and social care system.

NHS Tayside has explained that anyone who registers their details through the service is not signing up to take part in a specific study.

Instead, researchers will be able to search for volunteers who have signed up to the service and contact anyone who matches the criteria for their study.

A spokesperson said: “NHS Tayside will provide more information about the study and offer people the opportunity to find out more or express an interest to take part.”

Visit nhs.uk/researchcontact and more information about taking part in Covid-19 vaccine research can be found at bepartofresearch.uk

“NHS Tayside will provide more information about the study. NHS TAYSIDE SPOKESPERSON