Local research firm begins third round of COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials

The Clinical Research Institute of Southern Oregon is about to start its third clinical trial for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Inical trials here in medford.

Now newswatch 12's monica huynh looks at how the vaccine trials will work with volunteers.

Monica says: with the pfizer covid-19 vaccine distribution this week across the u-s clinical trials for other covid-19 vaccines are still in the works.

The clinical research institute of southern oregon is about to begin its third covid-19 vaccine clinical trial --- and volunteers are needed.

The clinical trials work with test subjects and placebos.

Half of the patients will receive the covid-19 vaccine and half of the participants will receive a placebo, or fake covid-19 vaccine.

There are unblinded people that prepare the vaccines and track that.

But the studies are designed so that we don't know either, because it might affect the way that we rate side effects and it may change our behavior around the subjects.

So we're blinded as well.

The institute says clinical trials will last nearly two years.

The studies so far have been focused on adults.

Both hanson and lexsinger plan on eventually working with children and pregnant women -- because there are different ways to vaccinate somebody to get the same end result.

We know that with most treatments and vaccines, different ones work better for different people.

Sometimes different age groups respond differently.

Sometimes different ethnicities, sometimes different sexes respond differently.

Men and women sometimes don't respond exactly the same immunologically.

The clinical institute is looking for people with different ethnicities and medical histories through a wide range of ages.

The vaccine trials are paid -- and allow you to drop out of the clinical trials at any time.

For more information about the covid-19 vaccine clinical