Help find a vaccine for COVID-19

August 18, 2020

The COVID-19 Prevention Network is casting a wide net for volunteers willing to participate in clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Why participate?

“We need as diverse a pool of volunteers as possible," said APHA Executive Director Georges Benjamin, MD. "If we want to understand how to prevent COVID-19, it will take broad participation, and that means volunteers from all races and ethnicities.”

Adults age 18 and older can visit coronaviruspreventionnetwork.org and be added to the COVID-19 Volunteer Screening Registry. The initial step is a 10-minute online survey, and the site includes information on:

What to expect when you volunteer.
What is a clinical study?
The science of COVID-19 vaccines and antibodies.
A map of U.S. clinical research sites.
Frequently asked questions about COVID-19 clinical studies and COVID-19.

While vaccines typically take several years to develop, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced in July the merging of four large clinical trials networks into the COVID-19 Prevention Trials Network, also known as the COVID-19 Prevention Network, with the goal of enrolling thousands of volunteers into large-scale clinical trials. Such randomized, controlled trials are essential to testing the effectiveness and safety of potential vaccines and other prevention strategies.

The COVID-19 Prevention Network's volunteer outreach is part of "Operation Warp Speed," a federal effort to deliver a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine by January 2021. The push has raised safety concerns and also underscores a need to develop a vaccine distribution strategy that doesn't further disenfranchise communities already harder hit by the pandemic and worsen health disparities.

In light of the pandemic's heavier toll on minority communities and longstanding vaccine skepticism, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is using focus groups to help understand public sentiment surrounding COVID-19 vaccination. And the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine is working on vaccine distribution plans that take into account high-risk populations and racial disparities.

Meanwhile, researchers need you. Volunteer today.