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'A risk I was willing to take': St. Mary's professor explains rationale behind participation in COVID-19 vaccine trial

Plans for vaccine distribution in the San Antonio region are starting to come into focus. But it's expected to be a months-long endeavor.

SAN ANTONIO — According to local leaders, the coronavirus vaccine will be arriving in Bexar County in two weeks. The city and county are working to finalize distribution plans. 

The vaccine will first go to 10 local hospitals once it arrives on the week of Dec. 14. However, a vaccine still needs to be approved. Two drug companies, Pfizer and Moderna, are hoping the Food and Drug Administration will authorize their vaccine candidates in the coming days.

St. Mary's University Professor of Law Professor Bill Piatt is a participant of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccination study. He is one of thousands across the world taking part in the trial.

"I am not a medical person," he said. "But I wanted to do all I could to bring about a vaccination for my family, my friends, students and my country."

Piatt got his first immunization in August and a second shot in September.

"Everything is a risk," he said. "Getting in your car and going downtown is a risk. This is a risk that is going to benefit a whole lot of people—if it works. So this is a risk I was willing to take."

Piatt doesn't know if he got the vaccine or a placebo. However, he said he has a strong inkling he was injected with the COVID vaccine.

"(I attribute it to) optimism, and the fact I haven't gotten sick," he said. "And the fact I had some side effects, especially the second one, not the first one. They were minimal: Slight elevation in temperature, some body aches that last 24 hours. Nothing else. No other problems at all."

Moderna is hoping people will start taking its vaccine in the coming weeks. Along with Pfizer, the company is waiting on emergency approval from the FDA.

"I am happy and relieved it is on the verge of approval," Piatt said. "Because I am convinced that it works. I just hope everybody receives the vaccination as soon as it becomes available."

As part of the double-blind study, Piatt has to do journal entries, as well as get checked for the next two years.

Governor Greg Abbott said Texas will be receiving 1.4 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines. Earlier this week, an influential government advisory panel voted nearly unanimously to recommend that the first batches of the vaccine should go to health care workers and long-term care facility residents. 

The distribution will be broken up into different tiers, and the vaccine is not expected to be widely available to the public until sometime in the spring. Local leaders are expected to announce more details in the coming days.

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