I'm very much pro-vaccine, especially for something like the flu that is so highly contagious. One of the things I do for extra money (among other reasons) is volunteer as a healthy control subject for new vaccine development. As long as you are not allergic to any of the components (which they will ask you about beforehand) and do not have a compromised immune system, there is little to no risk. Unfortunately, people with compromised immune systems are the people who need to be protected the most, and vaccines are riskier for them. This is one of the problems that immunologists are working on.
I'm also very pro-vaccines (I don't get flu shots, but I think it's very important that they - and other vaccines - exist) and I think it's great that you're volunteering for vaccine testing. In fact, you've inspired me to do the same. However, I don't know where to start. Could you point me to some places where I could sign up?
Sure! I don't live in Boston anymore, so I don't know specifically which studies are going on now, but as I'm sure you know, Boston has a lot of research hospitals. I have done vaccine studies in the past at Brigham & Women's Hospital and at Tufts. Here's a link for current clinical trials at Partners Health Care: http://www.brighamandwomens.org/research/microClinicalTrial.aspx If you click on "Healthy Volunteers" and then scroll down and click on "Vaccines" there is information on how to enroll (this blurb talks about their HIV vaccine research, and I know that this group studies other things in addition to that as well). Also, there are often ads for clinical trial recruitment in the newspaper and on Craigslist (under "volunteers" in the community section or "etc." in the jobs section).
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branchandroot
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Date: 2009-09-29 06:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-29 11:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-29 12:10 pm (UTC)