Sometimes in life, you meet extraordinary people…

[M'Bob]

…and that happened today.

A young, 25 year-old runner came into my practice with multiple soft tissue injuries to her hip. She’s an emergency room nurse.

During the course of treating her, and chatting about the weekend, she mentioned, in passing, that she was going to New York to continue her participation in the Moderna vaccine trials which now involve the booster.

So, this young girl, with all the unanswered risks that one encounters from participating in medical trials, selflessly agreed to be a guinea pig so that the rest of us could potentially benefit and live.

I had to ask myself a hard question: would I have done it? The truth? No. On top of it, she was so humble about doing it, never grandstanding, and was happy to help. It was difficult for me to keep my eyes from welling up. What a wonderful experience to meet someone with so much humanity and compassion.

 

[Spruce]

Here in the UK, 19,000 + of us volunteered to be guinea pigs for the US Novavax trial. The 19,000 are those who had two doses in October/November 2020. For reasons no one has told us, although the vaccine has been found to be effective, it hasn’t (after all this time) been approved as an ‘approved vaccine’.
The consequence is that we’re ineligible for an ‘approved’ vaccine but deemed to be unvaccinated for foreign travel. Not the worst of both worlds but sufficient for most of us to decide not to volunteer again.

 

[jaguar11]

Spruce

Here in the UK, 19,000 + of us volunteered to be guinea pigs for the US Novavax trial. The 19,000 are those who had two doses in October/November 2020. For reasons no one has told us, although the vaccine has been found to be effective, it hasn’t (after all this time) been approved as an ‘approved vaccine’.
The consequence is that we’re ineligible for an ‘approved’ vaccine but deemed to be unvaccinated for foreign travel. Not the worst of both worlds but sufficient for most of us to decide not to volunteer
How awful and frustrating!!!!

 

[ChiefMark]

Spruce

Here in the UK, 19,000 + of us volunteered to be guinea pigs for the US Novavax trial. The 19,000 are those who had two doses in October/November 2020. For reasons no one has told us, although the vaccine has been found to be effective, it hasn’t (after all this time) been approved as an ‘approved vaccine’.
The consequence is that we’re ineligible for an ‘approved’ vaccine but deemed to be unvaccinated for foreign travel. Not the worst of both worlds but sufficient for most of us to decide not to volunteer again.

This has to be as frustrating as being one of the 100's of millions around the globe who have contracted and recovered from the virus, leaving them with definitively greater and longer-lasting immune response to the virus than any of the vaccines have demonstrated. Multiple large studies have confirmed the greater efficacy of natural immune response to COVID over the vaccines. Yet these people are being treated as outcasts or second class citizens. I'm not speaking about people who have neither recovered from COVID or been vaccinated, and will not get into that discussion. At least these people can get the (for them) superfluous vaccine.

These poor volunteers are truly being abused by a system which seems incapable of common sense. Clearly, a bureaucrat somewhere needs to make the decision to either deem you vaccinated or allow you to get a second vaccine. Thank you, @Spruce , for your contribution to the overall solution.

 

[Out of TIME!]

M'Bob

…and that happened today.

A young, 25 year-old runner came into my practice with multiple soft tissue injuries to her hip. She’s an emergency room nurse.

During the course of treating her, and chatting about the weekend, she mentioned, in passing, that she was going to New York to continue her participation in the Moderna vaccine trials which now involve the booster.

So, this young girl, with all the unanswered risks that one encounters from participating in medical trials, selflessly agreed to be a guinea pig so that the rest of us could potentially benefit and live.

I had to ask myself a hard question: would I have done it? The truth? No. On top of it, she was so humble about doing it, never grandstanding, and was happy to help. It was difficult for me to keep my eyes from welling up. What a wonderful experience to meet someone with so much humanity and compassion.

California vocational class room had this posted:
We the willing
Led by the unknowing
Are doing the best we can for the ungrateful
We have been doing much for so long
With little or no gratitude!

Vounteer or paid participant?
Hope she fairs well!
I give blood, O- , that is enough for me! Good for ER & Infants!
Cheers! Mike

 

[Out of TIME!]

It is a blind testing with placebos tossed into the mix.
So, you were monitored for results & they can't inform you of what you were given!
Really stinks, Eh!
Ciao! Mike

 

[Spruce]

Out of TIME!

It is a blind testing with placebos tossed into the mix.
So, you were monitored for results & they can't inform you of what you were given!
Really stinks, Eh!
Ciao! Mike

In the UK, you were 'unblinded' when you were offered one of the approved vaccines.

 

[Walrus]

There are numerous amazing people who look for no glory or thanks they just do it. When I was working 2nd and 3rd shift I used to be able to do more volunteer work. I still do but unfortunately not that often but a while back a member here sent me a very nice watch holder the only request was I make a small donation to a charity but I do that anyway and felt like I was cheating so I volunteered at a soup kitchen in the town I work in. I wanted to check the place out anyway as a lot of clients I work with are always saying how good the food is. So I did a couple weekends and worked with this gentleman who had just turned 78 and has been volunteering and pretty much running that soup kitchen everyday for twenty years. Well six days a week. Twenty years, six days a week has not missed one day. He retired from the government and sadly his wife passed on shortly into his retirement. He told me if he didn’t find something positive to do he’s pretty sure he wouldn’t be alive today. He kept the place open the entire lockdown as well, he said if covid was going to kill him he didn’t want to be hiding at home. And yes he took it very serious. I do the same thing in my town for the holidays but he was definitely on me about cutting the vegetables to a uniform size so they cooked right in the soup. And we shared a couple meals together, same stuff he served the population that shows up everyday and it certainly was well made. He doesn’t just try to get everything out he tries to give everyone something they will enjoy. I have had run ins with similar types of people volunteering at homeless shelters, the ASPCA and food banks. I just do it on occasion for my own reasons but I’ve met many who do volunteer pretty much full time and are as devoted as, sometimes more so, than someone pulling a pay check but that 78 year old gentleman took it to another level. To me that’s like Rock Star status but I said that to him I could tell he did not like the praise, it’s something much deeper than that to him.

I always enjoy doing some volunteer work but it can truly be a lesson in humility when you spend s couple days with people who devote their life to it. Chopping vegetables and helping cook and deliver meals on the holidays seems like a poor effort on my part compared to what I see others do. But I’ll keep doing it just trying to get some time cut off my extended stay in purgatory.

 

[Foo2rama]

I’m shaking my head at one post in this thread.

a failure to understand basic statistics and lower health care costs….

 

[Crunchie]

I met a guy earlier this summer who has spent the last decade leading a troupe of clowns.
They tour refugee camps, orphanages, and disadvantage communities in Europe and the UK bringing a big of fun and laughter to kids living in tough conditions without judgement, politics, or hidden agendas.
The guy lives off grid in a converted showman’s wagon when he’s in the UK and washes in a stream, but has so much drive and passion for what he does that he could be a very rich man if he turned his energy and charisma to “normal” purposes.
The charity is the Flying Seagull Project, for anyone interested.
He’s not the only amazing person I’ve met through volunteering, but he’s certainly one of the most unique.

 

[cvalue13]

Foo2rama

I’m shaking my head at one post in this thread.

a failure to understand basic statistics and lower health care costs….

 

[Spruce]

Last week, the UK accepted that the failure of the makers of Novavax, one of the trial vaccines that had not yet secured health authority approval, was unfair on the 19,000 volunteers who might want to travel abroad or otherwise be treated in the same way as those vaccinated with an approved vaccine and invited the volunteers to get an approved vaccination.
This is not because Novavax didn’t work - it has a 90% rating - but because of administrative issues.
So today I’ve had a Pfizer jab …. I’m thinking of a trip to Paris in the New Year after my second jab …..

(Oh, and because we’re all into watches, I wore a favourite)