Dr. Atul Gawande, a coronavirus advisor to President-elect Joe Biden, told CNBC on Wednesday that he has participated in Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine trial.
“My mother, at the age of 84, said, ‘I want to give something back,’ so she signed up for the trial. I said if my mother can do that, I would sign up for a vaccine trial,” Gawande said. “Squawk Box.”
Massachusetts-based Moderna eventually became the company offering a trial in the neighborhood, said Gawande, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and a professor at Harvard University. He said he had his first injection in August and “felt almost nothing.” However, he said it was a different story when he got the second dose in late September.
“Two days later I had a fever, chills and had to stay home,” said Gawande, who is also chairman of Haven, the health care joint venture of Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase. “I haven’t had to take a day off from my surgery or public health work for over a year. I barely dropped, but that one knocked me down. And about 24 hours later I was back on my feet and I’m fine.”
Gawande’s reflection on his experience comes as Americans outside of clinical trials are being immunized against Covid-19 for the first time, starting last week with Pfizer’s vaccine and this week with Moderna. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracker, 614,117 doses had been administered on Monday morning.
Gawande said he doesn’t know whether he received the vaccine or was in the placebo group of the trial. While he suspects that the side effects he experienced were from the actual vaccine, he said it may have been a psychological response to getting the placebo. He added that his mother “barely had any reaction” to the shots she received during her clinical trial.
Vaccine side effects are not necessarily a concern, Gawande emphasized. “That’s the immune system that kicks in and makes your antibodies against the virus,” he said.
Gawande is part of a team of doctors and health experts advising Biden on the coronavirus pandemic during the transition. Monday, Biden was vaccinated on live television in hopes of encouraging other Americans to be willing to receive the shot. ‘You don’t have to worry about anything. I’m looking forward to the second shot, ”Biden said.
Biden said on Tuesday that Americans should remain vigilant for the coronavirus around the holidays, even though the vaccine has now been distributed. Meanwhile, the pandemic is raging on. Experts think it could get worse before it gets better, “he said.
Gawande gave a similar outlook on Wednesday, saying the high levels of infection currently present in the country will lead to more deaths from Covid-19 in the coming weeks and months.
“We’re at 300,000 deaths. The next 100,000 deaths are already in, with new infections in the last week or so,” Gawande said. “It’s really about whether we can avoid the 500,000 deaths, which is really just horrifying to think about.”