Exeter residents invited to take part in trials for new COVID-19 vaccine
Exeter is one of the first areas in the country where residents have been asked to volunteer to participate in trials of a new vaccine for COVID-19.
The trials are testing the Novavax vaccination and are being held at the Nightingale Hospital in Sowton. It is the world’s first phase three study to test its effectiveness, as well as testing the safety of the promising new vaccine. This is a different vaccine from the one made for US drug corporation Pfizer, which has been found to be 90 per cent effective.
According to the National Institute for Health Research, 54 people in Exeter have signed up to take part already.
Initially built to treat COVID-19 patients, due to low numbers of cases in the area the Nightingale Hospital is now being used for diagnostic testing, as well as the vaccine trials. A second vaccine trial centre is set to open at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital later in the month.
According to the National Institute for Health Research, 54 people in Exeter have signed up to take part already. Any healthy volunteer aged between 18 and 84 can take part, however a quarter are required to be over 65 – the age group most affected by COVID-19.