Potential COVID-19 vaccine enters Phase 3

LOS ANGELES – (INT) - The Lundquist Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center officially began phase 3 trials of a COVID-19 vaccine trial on September 4th.

The Oxford University AstraZeneca vaccine, identified as AZD1222, has already gone through early trials.

Phase 3 is designed to determine whether the vaccine can prevent symptomatic COVID-19 after two doses.

The study’s goal is to enroll 30,000 volunteers across the United States.

The vaccine does not have a live virus and cannot give a person COVID-19. The trial is blinded, meaning the participants and the investigators will not know who receives the vaccine. Of the volunteers enrolled, two-thirds will get the study vaccine and one-third will get a placebo or harmless injection.

If the results from the trial are positive, the vaccine could be made available to the public.