COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M officially started its COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial Wednesday with 50 volunteer health care workers.
Dr. Jeffrey Cirillo, a Regent's Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunology at the Texas A&M Health Science Center talked with KAGS News last week about the trial that involves the BCG vaccine, normally used as treatment for tuberculosis.
Dr. Cirillo said he hopes a treatment for COVID-19 can be ready within the next six months and he needs about 700 volunteer health care workers for the Phase 4 trial. "We need to find a way to protect health care workers," Dr. Cirillo said.
Dr. Gabriel Neal, who is the director of the Texas A&M Health Science Center, and is overseeing the vaccinations, agreed. "Health care workers are the most vulnerable at getting sick from the COVID-19 virus. Offering a treatment that protects them from the illness related to COVID-19 would be a big step forward in protecting Americans and people all over the world."
Health care workers who volunteered for the clinical trial first give a blood sample to test them for COVID-19. It is also a way for researchers to check the volunteer's immune system. Volunteers will then receive the BCG vaccine or a placebo. They will be sent home with a kit that allows them to test their blood for the next six months.
"We want to answer the question: Will the BCG vaccine offer some protection to health care workers against COVID-19?" Dr. Neal said. "Of course, we're very hopeful that this could be a treatment that's offered to health care workers in the future if it's effective."
The BCG vaccine is nearly a century old and the clinical trial needs hundreds of frontline workers to volunteer. Researchers are hoping the BCG vaccine will mitigate the virus. That means fewer people will be hospitalized and, hopefully, fewer people will die.
"We are thankful for these first volunteers today," said Dr. Cirillo. "But we need to get the word out. This could be a game-changer." Health care workers can volunteer for the trial by clicking here, or down below.
The clinical trial is also including volunteers in Los Angeles and Boston. Chancellor John Sharp said he allocated over $2 million dollars from the Chancellor's Research Initiative for the clinical trial.
Also involved in the trial is Harvard's School of Public Health, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. MD Anderson is supplying the BCG vaccine.
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