Faith and science both called me to participate in vaccine trials

On Tuesday, Sept. 6, I had my exit interview at the Palm Beach Research Center in West Palm Beach, where for the last two years

I have been known as Patient #001 in Moderna’s mRNA-1273 Phase

III Clinical Trial. As a chemistry professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University who teaches an introductory class in biochemistry to a cohort of nursing students, I knew that the risks to me were slim. I had read the results of the earlier phase trials and that the side effects were minimal, mostly injection site pain, myalgia and fever.

But I felt that had to do something. People were dying from COVID-19 and I couldn’t stand idly by and watch it happen. When I thought I had had a mild case of COVID-19 after we spent a few days in several Disney parks in Orlando in March 2020, I went and got tested on two separate occasions for antibodies, hoping to be able to offer my plasma to patients with severe cases. But both times I tested negative.

In August 2020, I was injected with what turned out to be a placebo followed by a second placebo 30 days later. I learned this when the study was unblinded in January 2021 and I was offered the option to receive the real vaccine or leave the study.

I opted for the vaccine, which left my left shoulder sore for several weeks, and the second shot a month later spiked chills, body aches, a killer headache and a 102.2 fever that I was quickly able to knock down with two Tylenol. I went to school that morning not feeling 100% but managed to get through my classes.

Over the course of these last two years, I have done two radio interviews and, most recently, after having finally succumbed to the omicron strain of COVID-19 this year, I was interviewed on television by a reporter working for a WPECCBS12. I served on the COVID Science Panel at my university, following the data, advising safety protocols for the students and faculty and encouraging students to get vaccinated.

I don’t think of myself as deserving special attention. The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the church at Rome that Christians should be willing to become “living sacrifices,” adding that this was “reasonable service.”

Writing in Foreign Policy Magazine, Lyman Stone makes this point: “The Christian response to plagues begins with some of Jesus’ most famous teachings: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’; ‘Love your neighbor as yourself ’; ‘Greater love has no man than this, that he should lay down his life for his friends.’ Put plainly, the Christian ethic in a time of plague considers that our own life must always be regarded as less important than that of our neighbor.”

My faith motivated me to participate in this study. Along with the other 30,000 or so volunteers, we played an important role in helping to push this vaccine across the finish line in early 2021.

I never felt as if I were risking my life. It was simply my “reasonable service.” We will never know how many lives we saved.