In Italy, the phase 3 trial for the Oxford-Astrazeneca anti Covid-19 vaccine starts: the first route at the Modena university hospital, among the seven centers chosen in Italy, where the inoculations will start approximately on December 1st.
In November, 300 volunteers, aged 18 and over, will be enrolled and will undergo a double-blind trial: 200 will be given the vaccine and the other 100 the placebo.
A toll-free number will soon be available for information and to collect applications.
The first 300 who request it and who meet the criteria will be chosen.
For the criteria for the recruitment of volunteers, Cristina Mussini, director of the complex structure of Infectious Diseases Aou in Modena and UniMoRe teacher explains in videoconference, "300 people, non-patients, healthy people of any age (as long as they are of age) and with any pathology, as long as it is in a stable stage ".
For example, "a compensated diabetic" or "an HIV patient with ongoing retroviral therapy" could be accepted.
Those who have been affected by Covid can also participate, but not in the acute phase.
Immunosuppressed patients, pregnant women will not be admitted.
The aim of the Aou of Modena is to avoid queues and gatherings on the spot: to apply, a toll-free number will be available by today, while reservations will be managed through an electronic agenda.
The place chosen to carry out the administrations is the Aou clinic, where an ad hoc path will be created for those who will undergo the experimentation.
No dedicated task force for this test operation: "We don't have any additional resources available - explains Mussini - the staff will rotate".
The 2 to 1 double-blind trial means that out of 300 participants 200 will receive the vaccine dose and the other 100 a placebo.
Nobody, not even medical staff, will know who is being given what.
Only when the blind is opened will even the hundred who had received the placebo be given the vaccine.