On January 13, less than a week after COVID-19 wasidentified as the virus behind the outbreak in Wuhan, researchersat Cambridge-based biotech company Moderna proposed a vaccine tofight it. A little over two months later, on Monday morning, apharmacist in Seattle injected Rebecca Sirull with that vaccine,making her the third person to be injected in a 45-person clinicaltrial, the first human trial in the country. To rush the vaccine toclinical trial, Moderna skipped animal testing, a somewhatextraordinary measure. Sirull, a healthy 25-year-old editorialcoordinator at a research institute, will receive a secondinjection in a month and have her blood drawn regularly for morethan a year. Should the test be successful, the more optimisticestimates suggest that a vaccine could be available in 12 to 18months. Intelligencer spoke with Sirull about her decision to takepart.
How did you hear about the trial?
I got a letter in the mail about a month ago saying theywere putting together a registry for people who might potentiallybe interested if they were to go ahead with the trial. It said“email this address and we’ll add you to our list.†So I sent thema message just because I thought it was interesting and wanted tohear more and I got a call that same day or the day after that theywere going ahead with the trial.
Why did you ultimately decide toparticipate?
I signed the consent last week. At that point the newsaround coronavirus, and the policies around it, had escalated alot. Initially, when I answered the letter last month, it was justa curiosity. By last week, when I could choose yes or no, Irealized this situation is actually pretty dire and it’s a reallyimportant thing to be a part of.
Did you discuss it with anyone beforehand?
I didn’t tell anyone until I’d actually decided to doit. I told my parents and a couple of friends after I signed up andit was set in stone that I would be doing it.
What happened on Monday?
I got to the clinic at 8 a.m. They have you fill out aquestionnaire — it was the third time that we filled that out. Itasked if you were feeling any symptoms of the flu or virus; if anyof our behaviors have changed that would not allow us to be in thestudy. We did a drug test, a pregnancy test, a few differentblood-draw tests for other things to make sure that we were stilleligible. Then the pharmacist came in and gave the injection. Thewhole thing happened in 30 seconds or less, quick and painless.They sent us home with a form to fill out and a thermometer torecord our temperature daily. They call every day to make surewe’re doing ok. I’ll go back for a follow-up visit onMonday.
What did they tell you about the vaccine?
They’ve been very transparent and open to answering anyquestions that I have. What they told us is that it’s not a livevirus. We don’t actually get exposed to the coronavirus itself. Thevaccine is made out of a messenger RNA sequence that teaches yourbody to produce a protein with a similar shape to the coronavirusand then they check and see if you’re able to produce antibodiesthat would be able to fight that protein if it were to come incontact with it in the future.
Did they give you any indication about the probabilityof this vaccine working?
I think they’re very hopeful, but I haven’t gotten a lotof detail about the exact percentages or probability that it willwork.
You’re working from home in Seattle, underself-quarantine. It seems sort of counterintuitive to put someonewho is testing a vaccine into self-quarantine and not coming incontact with the virus.
The test is not whether or not I get coronavirus. Theydo that with some types of vaccines, but for this one, the waythey’re testing is by drawing my blood every week and looking atthe number of antibodies that are in it. That’s what fights off theinfection. If my body starts producing more antibodies, thenthey’ll know that it’s effective. So, the goal is not to give methe coronavirus.
Aha, I’m glad that’s not the goal, for yoursake.
Pretty neat …
Did they mention any potential sideeffects?
It’s not a live virus, so most of the risks that theydiscussed have to do more with the site of injection itself (likeredness or swelling). I’m monitoring myself for fever, cough,nausea, headache. All of the symptoms of the virus.
Did they tell you anything about how the vaccine wasdeveloped?
They didn’t do animal testing, which is usually part ofvaccine trials. That step was skipped. That’s because they havemade other vaccines that use this same technique as opposed to alive virus. Those other types of vaccines were shown to be eithersuccessful or not have huge risks to the participants. I believethat’s why they skipped the animal portion, since they had alreadydone a similar concept for the flu. They had been experimentingusing that same mRNA sequence, as opposed to live virus. It’s justapplying that same theory to a new shape.
1. Which type of antigen preparation was shegiven?
2. What protein antigen of the coronavirus do you mostsuspect her cells will be expressing?
3. Think about how the antigen will ‘look’ to her immunesystem. What specific lymphocytes will be the primary response tothis type of antigen preparation?
4. Edward Jenner tested his vaccine by challenging hisgardener’s son with actual smallpox. Thankfully, that is not theway the success of this vaccine will be tested. How will they knowif the vaccine is effective? What does that mean is happening inher body?
