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Dr. Eric Coe jumped at the chance to help test a COVID-19 vaccine.
At his urging, so did his girlfriend, his son and his daughter-in-law. All received shots last week at a clinical research site in central Florida.
"My main purpose in doing this was so I could spend more time with my family and grandchildren," Coe said, noting that he's seen them only outside and from a distance since March.
"There's a lot less risk to getting the vaccine than contracting the virus," said Coe, 74, a retired cardiologist. "The worst thing that can happen is if I get the placebo."
The Coes' eagerness to offer up their bodies to science reflects the widespread public interest in participating in the pivotal, late-stage clinical trials of the first two COVID vaccine candidates in the United States.
Those trials began rolling out July 27. During the next two months, vaccine makers hope to recruit 60,000 Americans to roll up their sleeves to test the two vaccines, one made by Pfizer and BioNTech, a German company, and the other by biotech startup Moderna. While small tests earlier this year showed the preventives were safe and led to participants developing antibodies against the virus, the final phase 3 testing is designed to prove whether the vaccine reduces the risk of infection.
