Leeds Novavax Covid vaccine trial volunteer: Jab is 'only way out' of pandemic following 100,000 UK death toll 'disgrace'

A Leeds man who has a background in virology and volunteered for the Novavax vaccine trial has said that vaccines are the only way out of the pandemic as he brands the UK death toll of 100,000 people as a 'disgrace'.
Ravindra Chaudhari (photo: PA)Ravindra Chaudhari (photo: PA)
Ravindra Chaudhari (photo: PA)

The study of the Novavax coronavirus vaccination involved more than 15,000 participants between the ages of 18 to 84, with 27 per cent aged over 65.

Analysis showed that the new UK variant was detected in more than half of the Covid-19 cases recorded in the trials, and the vaccine was found to be 85.6 per cent effective against the variant.

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Ravindra Chaudhari, who has a background in virology, took part in the Novavax trial after he was keen to sign up because of his firm belief in vaccines

The 49-year-old from Leeds said that he felt from the start of the pandemic “it was pretty obvious that the only real way out was global vaccination”.

He said: “We’ve got 100,000 people dead in this country, which to be honest is a disgrace – for a first-world nation like ours to have that death toll is a disgrace.

“We ask people like care home workers to work in care homes when there’s a virus circulating, we ask people to go into hospitals – NHS workers, ICU workers – in the same way we ask young people to go forward and fight and get shot in the army.

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“At some point, people have to say ‘if we believe in this we have to do something’, and that’s where my mindset was – the only way out of this is vaccines.”

Following on from the Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, should the Novavax jab get MHRA approval there will be four available for use in the UK.

Mr Chaudhari added: “My view is the more vaccine candidates we have available the merrier.

“It means we can vaccinate more people faster and also it means you can now sort of stratify people – you want to give certain people one vaccine and certain people another based on clinical evidence.”

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In a double-blinded trial, volunteers do not know if they are receiving the candidate vaccine or a placebo.

Mr Chaudhari, who was part of the phase three trial, reported mild soreness from the jab but no major side effects.

The same was reported by Andrew Stronach, from Norwich, who works for Quadram Institute where the Novavax trials were being held.

He also took part in the trial and said he "feels some pride about having been involved".

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The 51-year-old added: “I understand that people might be nervous about new vaccines but, from my point of view, having been through this process, I’ve got absolutely no doubt that the scientists are being really thorough about what they’re doing, they’re being really careful about people’s safety.

Vaccines are life savers – they’ve changed world health over the last 50, 60 years and these vaccines will hopefully do the same thing with coronavirus.”

“What we’re being asked to do essentially is to stay at home and stay away from other people, which is pretty hard going at times, so I’ve really enjoyed the fact that I am doing something to help a lot of people in the long term.

“I joked to my wife that when I have grandchildren, when they say ‘what did you do during the pandemic Granddad?’ I can say ‘I was a guinea pig for the vaccine’.”

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