We support Wales’ vital role in coronavirus vaccine trial
We are welcoming the recent news that healthcare staff from Wales are being recruited to take part in the next phase of the Oxford University coronavirus vaccine trial.
Five hundred Welsh healthcare staff from the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board area will participate in the trial.
It is fantastic to see the people of Wales playing a vital role in the national trial for a coronavirus vaccine.
The volunteers taking part in the trial will be staff over the age of 18 who work within the health and care settings, including hospitals, GP practices, pharmacy, physiotherapy and community care roles, much like ours. If any of our staff wish to volunteer for the trial, they will have our full support.
Research like this is absolutely vital as the impact of Covid-19 has been huge. Adult social care services, including companies like ours, which provide care to elderly and vulnerable individuals in their own homes, are at the frontline and, while we’re coping well, a vaccine that will develop immunity against the virus and thus prevent the disease is crucial.
Services like ours are alleviating additional pressures on the NHS and its resources, which have been tested to the limit recently. Our role is to maintain people’s health in the comfort of their own homes and to keep them safe.
The trial, co-ordinated by Health and Care Research Wales, is a collaboration between Public Health Wales, Aneurin Bevan University Health Board and the Centre for Trials Research at Cardiff University. It is sponsored by the University of Oxford and funded by CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) UK Research and Innovation.
The aim is to find a safe vaccine that will develop immunity against the virus. The study aims to recruit 10,000 participants overall. Other participating sites include Southampton, St George’s, Imperial, Bristol and Oxford.
Half of the volunteers will be between 18 and 55-years-old and the other half will be 55 to 70-years-old.
