A Worcester man was part of the Pfizer COVID vaccine trial, but didnt get the actual shot; His experience an – MassLive.com

When Paul Bolton, of Worcester, learned he was part of the placebo-controlled group in Pfizer-BioNTechs COVID vaccine trial, he was anxious to find out how long hed have to wait to actually get immunized.

I wanted to see if I could get the vaccine as soon as possible, Bolton, who is a prosecutor for the Worcester District Attorneys office, said.

Bolton, who is in his late 60s, was one of 131 trial participants enrolled in the study, which began in July 2020, through UMass Medical School. With COVID-19 sweeping across parts of the south and the Midwest, and with several prototype vaccines in production, the Worcester native says he just wanted to help in whatever way possible.

He responded to a call for participants in the trial posted on social media, and UMass Medical School contacted Bolton the same day. After being screened for COVID and having blood drawn, he received an injection that he suspected, not long after, was saline not the real thing.

They say if you got the vaccine, you get a kind of a cold feeling going into your arm, Bolton said. I didnt get that so I was pretty sure I had the placebo.

On Jan. 14, the college reached out to Bolton to let him know he was part of the placebo-controlled group during the trial, meaning he didnt actually receive the Pfizer vaccine. The placebo group is used to measure the results of those who did get the COVID vaccine the difference in, for example, immune system response, and other side effects.

Five days later, he got his first dose of the vaccine, which Bolton surmised was well ahead of schedule, according to the states timeline. He has an appointment scheduled for the second dose on Feb. 12.

Now that hes on the verge of being fully vaccinated, Bolton says he feels like a burdens been lifted. Per the trial, he will continue reporting any symptoms or side effects to the UMass researchers.

There were concerns last year over about the integrity of the vaccines ahead of trials during what was to become an expedited emergency approval process. Health experts had high hopes for the shots which, if effective, would have far-reaching consequences for the U.S. and the rest of the world.

We didnt know if theyd work, and we didnt know if it was safe, Dr. Douglas T. Golenbock, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology at UMass Medical School, said of the Pfizer vaccine. But thats the nature of clinical trials.

The pace of the development of mRNA COVID vaccines (approved on an emergency basis in under a year of the virus taking root in the U.S.) and the sheer scale of their preliminary testing remains an unprecedented public health project. With the trials still ongoing, and with other companies working on their versions of vaccines in the middle of a national rollout, some experts worry about how willingly the public will participate in future trials and studies.

As we get closer to the time when people think they will get their vaccination, some are going to say, Yeah, Ill just wait it out, rather than take the risk, Dr. Eric Rubin, editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine and professor in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard University, said. Thats inherent in having a simultaneous testing and rollout strategy.

Rubin says experimental trials typically generate more enthusiasm among those who sign up. That tends to wane over time.

And in the case of COVID vaccine testing, the more people are vaccinated, the harder it may become for other companies to recruit volunteers.

That might limit the development of vaccines that are very late to the game, Rubin said. Youre tapping into groups of people who are less and less excited.

Pfizer recently said it finished enrolling children aged 12 to 15 in a new clinical trial to gauge the efficacy of the shots in children. The Pfizer vaccine is currently approved only for adults over the age of 16. The Moderna vaccine, similarly, is only approved for adults older than 18.