MultiCare seeks volunteers for Moderna booster vaccine research
If you received the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine earlier this year, you could be a candidate for local research on booster doses.
MultiCare Health System is seeking 200 adult volunteers in the Puget Sound and Spokane regions for a clinical trial to evaluate the immune responses of COVID-19 vaccine booster shots when given with other vaccinations.
The GSK clinical trial, led by the MultiCare Institute for Research and Innovation, will pair one dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine with either a shingles or an influenza booster vaccine, depending on the age of the recipient.
Participants under age 50 will receive the flu vaccine, while participants over 50 can receive either the flu or shingles vaccine.
The trial started Oct. 7.
Volunteers must be at least age 18, received both doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at least six months before trial and not received any flu or shingles vaccine in the previous six months.
Participants also must not be pregnant or plan to become pregnant within the next two months.
“As we move to a future where booster shots for our current COVID-19 vaccines are commonplace, it is likely that they will be given alongside other vaccines such as flu shots and the shingles vaccine at the same time,” said Dr. Jonathan Staben, the trial’s principal investigator and a primary care physician at MultiCare Rockwood Clinic in Spokane in a statement. “We need to continue to do research and study whether giving certain vaccines at the same time affects their performance.”
Volunteers will need to participate in six or more in-person clinic visits and two telephone check-in visits over a 24-week period, including blood draws and maintaining a symptom diary.
According to the study information, participants “may be reimbursed for expenses incurred while participating in the trial.”
For more information, email research@multicare.org or call 253-403-7249.
The Moderna vaccine is currently being evaluated by the FDA for potential booster doses, with advisory committee meetings to be held this month.
For now, only the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine has been approved by federal regulators for booster doses in specific populations.
This story was originally published October 7, 2021 at 11:23 AM.
