{"id":160692,"date":"2021-01-21T22:45:18","date_gmt":"2021-01-21T19:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/mobile-labs-take-vaccine-studies-to-diverse-neighborhoods\/"},"modified":"2021-01-21T22:45:18","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T19:45:18","slug":"mobile-labs-take-vaccine-studies-to-diverse-neighborhoods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/mobile-labs-take-vaccine-studies-to-diverse-neighborhoods\/","title":{"rendered":"#Mobile labs take vaccine studies to diverse neighborhoods"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Mobile labs take vaccine studies to diverse neighborhoods<\/strong>”
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NEW YORK \u2014 Lani Muller doesn\u2019t have to visit a doctor\u2019s office to help test an experimental COVID-19 vaccine \u2014 she just climbs into a bloodmobile-like van that parks on a busy street near her New York City neighborhood.<\/p>\n

The U.S. is rightly fixated on the chaotic rollout of the first two authorized vaccines to fight the pandemic. But with more vaccines in the pipeline \u2014 critical to boosting global supplies \u2014 scientists worry whether enough volunteers will join and stick with the testing needed to prove if they, too, really work.<\/p>\n

Those studies, like earlier ones, must include communities of color that have been hard-hit by the pandemic, communities that also voice concern about the vaccination drive in part because of a long history of racial health care disparities and even research abuses. To help, researchers in more than a dozen spots around the country are rolling out mobile health clinics to better reach minority participants and people in rural areas who might not otherwise volunteer.<\/p>\n

Muller, who is Black, said her family was worried about the vaccine research so she didn\u2019t mention she\u2019d signed up to test AstraZeneca\u2019s shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe legacy of African Americans in science<\/a> in these sort of trials hasn\u2019t been great and we haven\u2019t forgotten,\u201d said Muller, 49, a Columbia University employee whose participation in some prior research projects made her willing to get a test injection earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Muller knows more than 20 people who have gotten or died from COVID-19. \u201cI\u2019m much more afraid of the disease than the vaccine trial,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

From the beginning, the National Institutes of Health was adamant that COVID-19 vaccines be tested in a population about as diverse as the nation\u2019s \u2014 key to building confidence in whichever shots proved to work. In studies of the Pfizer and Moderna shots so far cleared for widespread U.S. use, 10% of volunteers were Black, and more were Hispanic.<\/p>\n

Diversity is an even tougher challenge now. The high-risk volunteers needed for final testing of other vaccine candidates have to decide if they want to stick with an experimental injection \u2014 one that might be a dummy shot \u2014 or try to get in line for a rationed but proven dose.<\/p>\n

AstraZeneca, with about 30,000 volunteers so far, didn\u2019t release specific numbers but said the last weeks of enrollment are focusing on recruiting more minorities and people over age 65. Another maker, Novavax, just began recruiting for its final testing last month.<\/p>\n

Studying the vaccines in diverse populations is only one step in building trust, said Dr. Wayne Frederick, president of Howard University, a historically Black university in the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

Howard\u2019s hospital shared video of Frederick and other health workers getting vaccinated as a public service announcement encouraging African Americans to get their own shot as soon as it\u2019s their turn.<\/p>\n

Frederick, a surgeon who\u2019s also at high risk because of diabetes and sickle cell disease, said he\u2019s dismayed to get emails espousing conspiracy theories such as that vaccination is \u201can experiment on African Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is misinformation that does require all of us to be in the forefront of getting involved and challenging it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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