BOZEMAN — Researchers at Bozeman Health Deaconess Hospital have been working on a possible solution in the fight against the coronavirus. But now, they need participants willing to test it out.
“I’m the primary investigator at the local site here in Bozeman, Montana. There are 120 sites with the Pfizer vaccine and we are underneath the vaccine or working with Pfizer for the vaccine,” explained Dr. Andrew Gentry, a physician at Bozeman Healh.
Bozeman Health is not just working on a vaccine alone. Now the public can help and get involved with finding a solution.
“We’re taking almost anyone between the ages of 18 and 85. They set up a study to include as many people as possible and to get enrollment as quickly as possible because this is an urgent need for society,” Dr. Gentry said.
You don’t have to have the virus in order to participate. In fact, there’s only one eliminating factor.
“Anyone who’s on an immunosuppressive drug like chemotherapy, cancer patients. We don’t want to put them at risk of an immune response during the vaccine,” he explained.
You might be asking yourself what’s the point? Well, Dr. Gentry’s got an answer for you.
“The point of the study is to create a vaccine so that we can actually take our masks off and talk to each other again and convey immunity for a virus that’s kind of covering the earth right now,” Dr. Gentry explained.
The study involves six visits over two years.
“And those include a blood draw where you’re going to be donating your blood, and they’ll just check for antibodies for the virus, make sure you’re immune, and the second thing is there’s an app that you download on your phone and basically it’s a single question that’s asked on a weekly basis. Have you had any symptoms? You click yes. It sends us an automatic alert then we call you.”
To sign up to become a participant in this study or to see the risks, you can visit here.