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Maryland-based vaccine maker Novavax is reporting positive results from its early Coronavirus vaccine trials.

The company participates in the White House’s initiative to stop COVID-19, “Operation Warp-Speed”.

Reports indicate that “2 separate shots, 21 days apart, will help fight COVID-19,” WBAL reports. Doctors found some of the side-effects to be a “headache, fatigue, and myalgia.” They also discovered that splitting the two doses were stronger against COVID-19 than one single dose.

Novavax a ‘shinig star’?

Apparently, doctors have been confident in the vaccine for a few months.”People believe that we have a good vaccine and that needs to be supported and brought to the public,” Novavax Chairman Jim Young said in July.

Many people are apprehensive about taking a vaccine as trust in leadership has been waning in recent months. The CDC maintains that ensuring the safety of the public is their number one priority.They want to be sure that any vaccines released are “as safe as possible”, per CDC site. “These clinical trials are being conducted according to the rigorous standards set forth by FDA in their June 2020 guidance document, Development and Licensure of Vaccines to Prevent COVID-19external icon. If FDA determines that a vaccine meets its safety and effectiveness standards, it can make these vaccines available for use in the United States by approval or emergency use authorization.”

Not enough for Jessie.

The CDC’s guidelines and promises aren’t enough for 82 year old retired mechanic, Jessie Bell.

He told The Undefeated, “usually when something comes out for the first time, it’s not exactly right and of course, me being Black, you know, you get the flashbacks to what they did to the Black people back in the ’20s, ’30s,’40s. How they used them as guinea pigs.”

I wonder if others are thinking like that. The numbers definitely support so as reports indicate low African American participation in vaccine trials.

Despite low African American vaccine trials, Bell still does not trust the government. “I’m hearing Trump and he’s trying to pressure these drug companies to expedite this vaccine for this virus and because of the way he’s been talking about non-whites, it might very well be something to get rid of us.”

It is a bit concerning to imagine releasing a vaccine that wasn’t tested in our communities. I assume that’s why these vaccine companies seek to test it in multiple communities and create a product that can help us all.

“If we’re developing a vaccine, we want that vaccine to be effective and safe in people who are at the highest risk of getting infection and getting severe disease from infection,” Karen Kotloff told the Washington Post. “And that’s why it’s so important for those groups to be well represented in the same distribution that they are represented in the epidemiology of the disease.” Kotloff serves as the principal investigator for the Maryland clinical trial and head of Infectious Disease and Tropical Pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Sending love and concern to Baltimore families facing COVID-19. We’re hoping that medical companies can create a vaccine that protects us all.

ccine that protects us all.