Official: Trust of virus vaccine critical
Americans need to trust the vaccines ultimately approved for use against COVID- 1 9 and ignore “absolutely false” notions that the development process has been unsafely accelerated, according to the head of an Oklahoma company that has conducted clinical trials for Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
“Once this vaccine is available to the population, it is absolutely critical that we get to between 55% and 60% of the people va c cinated,” Carlos Blanco, CEO of the Lynn Institute, said in an interview on Wednesday.
“If we can Blanco do that, we will bring about an end to the pandemic because enough people will reach what's called vaccine-induced herd immunity. In other words, enough people have the antibodies and the protection that the virus can't spread easily from one person to the next because they have protection.”
The Lynn Institute conducted clinical trials in Oklahoma and Colorado for the vaccines being developed for COVID-19 by drug companies Pfizer and Moderna. In Oklahoma, the Pfizer trial involved about 300 patients in Norman, while the Moderna trial involved about 500 patients in Oklahoma City.
Pfizer reported on Monday i ts vaccine, developed with BioNTech, was 90% effective in preventing COVID-19. That is far better than expected, Blanco said, adding that Modern a is using the same approach as Pfizer and could soon report the same efficacy for its vaccine.
Thousands of people in Norman and Oklahoma City volunteered for the clinical trials. Blanco called that an “overwhelming response” but said he couldn't necessarily infer from the local numbers that there would be widespread willingness among the rest of the population to be vaccinated.
“With a metropolitan area of a million people( in the Oklahoma City ar ea) , t hat means we need to vaccinate about 500,000 of them to do what we need to do, to get to the end of this pandemic,” he said. “I think Oklahomans would respond because we are very devoted to our families and our children and keeping them safe and healthy.”
Blanc os aid he was concerned about polls showing only about one-third of Americans were willing to be vaccinated.
“Boy, if that's the response we've got, then we're in trouble, and t he pandemic will continue for years,” he said.
Public acceptance
Pending approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Pfizer vaccine may be ready for distribution next month, with health care workers and vulnerable populations the first priorities.
A poll taken in Oklahoma in September by Amber Integrated showed only 46% of likely voters would get a vaccine if one became available.
That was down from 55% of likely voters who said in June they would get one. The number of Democrats who said they would get a vaccine dropped from 71% in June to 54% in September, while about 45% of Republicans were willing in both polls. Willingness by independents to get a vaccine dropped from 54% in June to 36% in September.
Both polls surveyed 500 likely voters and had a margin of error of 4.4% at the 95% confidence level.
Jackson L isle, a partner in Amber Integrated, of Oklahoma City, said recently that vaccines had become a highly partisan issue, with some Democrats growing wary simply because President Donald Trump had been pushing an accelerated timeline.
“It will be interesting to see at the end of the year, early next year, how t hose numbers change because I think post-election, it might be depoliticized to a certain extent,” Lisle said.
No pressure to cut corners
Blanco said, “This notion that this process of clinical trials and drug development has been sped up is absolutely false. These trials have been conducted like any other clinical trial. There has been no pressure to cut corners or do anything but collect data of the highest integrity.”
Although the federal effort to develop a vaccine is called Operation Warp Speed, the companies have managed to reduce the time needed for administrative work between the phases of trials, which involve growing numbers of participants. Pfizer did not accept federal funding to develop the vaccine, but is part of the federal project to distribute it.
“What the scientific community has done is extraordinary and I hate that a lot of this has been politicized ,” he said .“I wish people would pause and realize what a huge accomplishment this is for mankind, for humanity.”
The Lynn Institute, which is currently recruiting volunteers for other COVID-19 vaccines, has conducted about 1,200 clinical trials in the last 25 years, Blanco said, and was chosen as one of the third-party companies because of its prior success in getting participants.
Half of the participants in the Pfizer and Moderna trials received the vaccine and half received a placebo, Blanc os aid, but the Lynn Institute did not know which volunteers got which injection.
“The antibody results are not shared with us,” he said. “We don't have the slightest idea of whether someone is or is not producing antibodies. We get the results of their safety labs—Are they still healthy, are they doing OK? But we don't get the efficacy side, which is the antibody production.
“Our job in this process is probably the most pivotal job because we have to ensure that the patients stay safe through the whole clinical trials process.”
In the Pfizer study ,“we did not see any adverse reactions to the vaccine,” with a low number experiencing redness at the injection site and very l ow- grade fevers, Blanco said.
Oklahoma has submitted a vaccine plan to the federal government that calls for phase one recipients to be :12,000 nursing home, assisted living, and longterm care facility staff; 500 public health staff conducting front-line C OVID -19 pandemic mitigation; 84,000 health care workers providing direct in patient COVID- 19 care; 19,000 nursing home, assisted living, and longterm care facility residents.
Most Oklahomans would have the opportunity to be vaccinated in the first three of the four phases.
The plan was developed without the knowledge of when a vaccine would be available for any phase.