Moderna executive says the company is recruiting for COVID trials from a diverse population
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The Chief Medical Officer at Moderna, Paul Burton, has said that the COVID-19 vaccine maker has developed a better way of recruiting people from diverse populations for its clinical trials. These trials are being conducted as part of studies into COVID-19 vaccines.
Moderna is recruiting COVID trials from a diverse population
Burton was speaking in New York at the Reuters NEXT conference, saying that in 2020, the vaccine maker was forced to slow down recruitment in its first COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials to ensure the process supported diversity. The clinical trials included more people in communities of color.
He added that having diversity in the clinical trials would boost the acceptance of these vaccines by people from different communities. “We recognized that to get good uptake to get real acceptance, you need to have representation of all sorts of people from different communities,” he said.
He also said that the company managed to have a representation of 37% of people from communities of color in a clinical trial that involved 35,000 people. Burton added that Moderna has strived to sustain this diverse enrollment in all its trials.
Moreover, the people of color included in the vaccine trials for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and Cytomegalovirus (CMV) were likely more than 35%. He further added that the company had deployed new technologies to allow people to participate in vaccine studies from the comfort of their homes.
Having people participate in these studies from home is part of an effort to democratize research and ensure that the studies can reach out to more populations.
China eases quarantine protocols
As vaccine trials and studies continue, governments worldwide have eased COVID-19 restrictions. However, China has continued with stringent COVID-19 policies to curb the spread of the virus.
However, these strict COVID policies sparked uproar, with mass protests witnessed across the country. The Chinese government is now showing signs of easing the COVID-19 quarantine protocols and reducing mass testing in what is seen as a major policy shift.
Nevertheless, the cases of infection nationwide remain notably high. Some cities have already started lifting lockdowns, with a top official saying that the ability of the virus to cause severe illness had dropped.
The cities announcing the easing of restrictions have not attributed their decision to the protests that rocked the country. The protests have been seen as the country’s biggest show of civil disobedience for years.
