Dr. Atul Gawande, a coronavirus advisor to President Joe Biden, told CNBC on Wednesday that he participated in the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine trial.
“My mother, at the age of 84, said, ‘I want her back,’ so she applied for the trial. I said if my mother can do that, then I’ll send her for a vaccine test, “Gawande said of” Squawk Box. “
Massachusetts-based Moderna ended up as the company offering a nearby test, said Gawande, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and a Harvard University professor. He said he got his first sighting in August and was “feeling almost nothing.” However, he said, it was a different story when he received his second dose at end of September.
“Two days later, I had a fever, a cold and the need to stay at home,” said Gawande, who is also chairman of Haven, the joint healthcare initiative from Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase. “I didn’t have to take a day off from my surgery or public health work for over a year. I barely let anything knock me down, but that one put me down. Then around 24 hours later, I was back on my feet and doing just fine. “
Gawande’s reflection on his experience comes as Americans outside of clinical trials are getting the Covid-19 vaccine for the first time, starting last week with the Pfizer vaccine. and with Moderna this week. As of Monday morning, 614,117 doses had been administered, according to the administrator of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Gawande said he does not know if he received the vaccine or if he was in the placebo group of the trial. While he suspected the side effects he received from the actual vaccine, he said it is possible that receiving the placebo was a psychological response. He said his mother had hardly any response from shots she received in her clinical trial.
Side effects from vaccines may not be a cause for concern, Gawande stressed. “That’s the immune system kicking in, and your antibodies generating it into the virus,” he said.
Gawande is part of a team of doctors and health experts advising Biden on the coronavirus pandemic during the transition. On Monday, Biden was vaccinated on live television in hopes of encouraging other Americans to be willing to take the bullet. “There’s nothing to worry about. I’m looking forward to the second look,” Biden said.
Biden said Tuesday that Americans need to be vigilant about the coronavirus around the holidays, even as the vaccine has begun to spread. “In the meantime, the pandemic will continue. Experts believe it could get worse before it gets better,” he said.
Gawande took a similar view Wednesday, saying the current high levels of disease in the country will lead to more deaths from Covid-19 in the coming weeks and months.
“We’re at 300,000 deaths. Already, the next 100,000 deaths are being baked, with new infections in the last week or so,” Gawande said. “It simply came to our notice then that we could avoid the 500,000 deaths that are just appalling. “