Be a part of ‘how science happens’
COVID-19 vaccine trials recruiting participants
Several COVID-19 vaccine trials are recruiting participants in Oklahoma, including a trial for young children, booster shot trials for adults, and a study aimed at people with autoimmune conditions who didn’t mount a strong response to their initial vaccinations.
Slots are still open to participate in trials through the Lynn Health Science Institute, though they’re being filled quickly, said Carlos Blanco, chief exec
utive officer of the institute, which also ran some of the initial COVID-19 vaccine trials last year.
“Oklahomans have just been incredible in the way they have responded,” Blanco said. “They want to help, and they want to do something to bring about the end of this pandemic.”
In addition to the booster trials for adults, the Lynn Institute is also running a COVID-19 vaccine trial for children ages 6 months to 2 years old.
Children’s trials in particular have filled up fast, with many families who sign up hoping for a chance at giving their children protection against the virus. While some might question vaccinating young children, who typically don’t have severe complications from COVID-19, protecting kids is a key part of getting past the pandemic, Blanco said.
“It’s really easy to say the numbers are small when it’s not your family,” he said.
‘ This is how science happens’
Eric Nelson, 50, participated in the original Moderna COVID-19 trial, getting his first shot in August 2020. The trial was later unblinded, and he learned he received the vaccine instead of a placebo.
“Like most people, I was kind of feeling kind of helpless, wanted my own life back,” Nelson said. “So I was happy to be one of more than 30,000 people that participated in it, trying to get things moving.”
He said the process required a few office visits for the shots and blood draws, and the trials are compensated. Nelson is enrolling in one of the adult booster trials, too, he said.
The Lynn Institute is running a number of booster trials, including ones that test the efficacy of the original Moderna vaccine against a dose that has been updated to fight off newer COVID-19 variants. Others will combine a booster dose with a flu shot or shingles shot.
Dr. David Chansolme, medical director of infection prevention with Integris Health, also enrolled in the initial Moderna trial in August 2020. Along with some other friends who worked in health care, he enrolled hoping for a chance at some protection.
“We’d all been doing COVID for five or six months, and we were all seeing what was going on in the hospitals and how sick these folks were,” he said. “We all did it because we figured there was a 50/50 shot we were getting something that might protect us against the disease in the hospital.”
When vaccines became available to health care workers in December 2020, the trial wasn’t ready to unblind participants, so Chansolme didn’t know whether he received the vaccine or the placebo — though he suspects he had a placebo shot. He left the trial so he could be vaccinated.
A few months later, after hearing Chansolme talk about vaccines and being in the original trial, his 14-year-old daughter enrolled in a COVID-19 vaccine trial for teens.
“She was excited to be part of the possibility of kids getting vaccines,” Chansolme said.
And he was happy to have her have a shot at some protection and to see science in action.
“This is how science happens,” he said. “We wouldn’t have the vaccines we have now, had 45,000 people not signed up for studies just like this to be a part of advancing the science. … There’s no other way for us to get through this and test all these new interventions without people coming in and being part of the process.”
Trial seeks patients with autoimmune conditions
Another trial is seeking participants who have certain autoimmune conditions and didn’t respond well to their initial COVID-19 vaccine regimen.
The study is being funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Judith James, vice president of clinical affairs at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, is one of the study’s lead investigators.
“We’re concerned about people with autoimmune conditions because they are more likely to have breakthrough episodes of COVID even when fully vaccinated, due to an inadequate antibody response to their original vaccine regimen,” James said in a statement. “In this study we are testing whether giving these people an extra vaccine dose, potentially while pausing their autoimmune disease medicines, will elicit a stronger antibody response without flaring their autoimmune disease.”
The study will include about 600 participants and will include people with one of five autoimmune conditions: multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, pemphigus, systemic sclerosis or systemic lupus erythematosus.
Darrell Barnett, a 59-year-old who lives in Oklahoma City and has multiple sclerosis, was the first in the state to enroll in the study.
Even after vaccination, Barnett’s body didn’t make an antibody response. He joined the trial in the hopes of helping others, he said.
“If you don’t do it for yourself, do it for everyone else,” Barnett said. “It may not help me at all down the road, but it might help someone else. There’s a good chance it’s going to help someone else.”
How to participate
People interested in signing up for a COVID-19 vaccine trial — either an adult booster trial or the trial for children as young as 6 months — through the Lynn Institute can call 405-447-8839 for more information, or visit lhsi.net.
For the trial seeking immunocompromised patients, participants must have a negative or suboptimal antibody response to two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, all received before enrollment. Participants also must be taking one of three immunosuppressive therapies: mycophenolate mofetil or mycophenolic acid, methotrexate, or B cell-depleting drugs such as rituximab or ocrelizumab.
Participants will get an extra dose of whichever COVID-19 vaccine they initially received. They’ll be randomly assigned to continue taking their medication without alteration, or to pause taking their medication for a short time before and after getting the extra dose.
Those interested can call the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation at 405-271-7745.