National Post (National Edition)
‘I’m not saving the world’
FIRST PERSON TO TEST A POSSIBLE COVID-19 VACCINE HUMBLED BY SUPPORT SHE GETS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
The injection, applied to the left shoulder, lasted only a few seconds. But with it came the hopes of a world locked in a deadly battle with coronavirus and no small amount of personal risk.
Jennifer Haller, a 44-year-old mother of two, did not flinch in the corner of the Seattle laboratory as the man in a face mask and blue gloves made the insertion.
She had made up her mind long before that morning in March — the day she became the first person in the world to receive a possible vaccine for COVID-19, according to U.S. researchers.
Weeks earlier Haller, an operations manager at a technology start-up, had spotted a call on Facebook for voluntary participants in the historic trial. She decided to opt in.
“Even at that time we were all feeling so helpless,” she tells The Daily Telegraph, speaking down the line from her self-isolation in Washington state. “There was nothing I could do to stop this global pandemic. Then I saw this opportunity and thought, ‘maybe there is something I can contribute.’”
Looking on as things once taken for granted — freedom of movement, the right to work — began to disappear under the shadow of COVID-19, the trial offered something tangible.
“It gave me some sense of control,” says Haller. “We’re all so out of control and helpless. This just gave me something that I could hold onto, that could be helpful.”
The final “yes” was not instantaneous, however. As she went through the medical checks needed to get approved for the trial, concerns were raised by friends and family.
Her husband wondered whether it really was safe. The couple had allowed their son to take part in medical studies while an infant but this was different.
The trial, run by Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle, would involve two doses of an experimental vaccine being given 28 days apart, then a year of monitoring. The vaccine, named mRNA-1273, had been tested on animals and showed promise. This was the first time it would be used on a human.
The trial would not involve injecting any part of COVID-19 itself — a point Haller used to reassure loved ones. But that did not guarantee a smooth ride.
The 45 pages of disclaimers given beforehand spelled out the uncertainties, not least that participants could be more vulnerable to catching coronavirus afterwards. She signed anyway. “There were a ton of risks involved. But I’m a real positive person and the benefits of this far outweighed any risks in my mind,” says Haller.
It is hard to exaggerate just how much is riding on this trial, and the scores of similar ones now taking place across the world. Scientists insist that the coronavirus pandemic, which has already claimed more than 80,000 lives and infected some 1.5 million people, will be only truly over once a working vaccine is discovered.
It could be a year from now, some experts predict. Or 18 months. Until then, containment and perhaps some immunity from the spread are the best weapons available.
Haller only discovered she was to be the first person to test the vaccine at 8 a.m. on March 16, when she arrived for the injection and saw The Associated Press had been invited for the launch. For the next two weeks she was asked to keep a daily log of any symptoms.
“The first day I had a slightly elevated temperature,” she says. “The second day my arm was pretty sore. But everything was all right after that. It was as easy as a regular flu shot.”
Less simple to handle has been the wave of attention that has fallen on her, reflecting the global eagerness for a chink of light in such dark times.
The television interviews were fine. It was the deluge of messages of support and encouragement from members of the public that left her more stumped. More than a thousand of them have come in on Facebook and Instagram: “we’re praying for you”; “we need a vaccine”; “thank you for putting your life on the line.”
“That has been overwhelming and humbling,” says Haller. “And actually, for a while, it was difficult to know what to do with all that attention, the positivity that was coming at me.”
Her children — 16-year-old son Hayden and 13-year-old daughter Ellison — had no such qualms. “They thought it was pretty cool,” says Haller, chuckling. “They would report back to me how many TikTok views I would have and what’s on Reddit. They think it’s hilarious!”
Her efforts have not gone unnoticed by the U.S. president, or at least those close to him. There has been no message from Donald Trump, says Haller, but a more on-brand nod to her involvement. Footage of her taking the injection has featured in a new 30-second campaign advert touting his leadership during the crisis. She admits, diplomatically, to being “taken aback.”
Haller’s involvement, and that of the trial’s other 44 adults taking part, is only just beginning. Her second dose is due next week. Monitoring will not end until spring 2021.
She remains confident a successful vaccine will emerge — whether from her trial or the ones pushing forward in other corners of the world.
“Whenever we get to the vaccine, whatever it ends up being, I will be proud to have been part of the process,” says Haller.
As for any praise, she says it is the “hundreds of thousands” of people putting their lives on the line by carrying on with their jobs who really deserve it.
“That humility is genuine,” she says. “This is one thing I can do and I’m happy to do it. I’m not saving the world.” Others may disagree.
THIS GAVE ME SOMETHING THAT I COULD HOLD ONTO, THAT COULD BE HELPFUL.