Hoylman gives it a shot; Participates in COVID-19 vaccine trial

State Senator Brad Hoylman is getting to “the point.”

This week he began participating in a phase-three clinical trial for a vaccine candidate to prevent COVID-19. The trial is being done through New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, under the auspices of N.Y.U. Langone Health’s Vaccine Center.

N.Y.U. Langone Health’s Vaccine Center will be conducting several COVID-19 vaccine trials with the national COVID-19 Prevention Network.

According to immunologists, without a vaccine for COVID-19, there will always be a risk that new outbreaks of the disease will emerge.

“The development of a COVID-19 vaccine is our generation’s moonshot,” Hoylman said. “As a staunch advocate for science-based health policy to combat vaccine-preventable illnesses, I’m proud to have done my part by joining a clinical trial for a COVID-19 vaccine at the Vaccine Center at N.Y.U. Langone Health. If this or other vaccine candidates are successful, we’ll be able to stem the human suffering caused by COVID-19, protect our front-line workers and vulnerable New Yorkers from infection, and hopefully soon resume our daily lives.”

The state senator urged other New Yorkers to follow his lead and participate in a vaccine trial.

“The stakes couldn’t be higher,” Hoylman said. “That’s why we need all hands on deck to end this pandemic. I urge New Yorkers to find out whether they qualify to join a COVID-19 vaccine trial. More information is available at the Vaccine Center (covid_vaccine_study@nyulangone.org) and at coronaviruspreventionnetwork.org.”

According to N.Y.U. Langone Health, if the ongoing studies are successful and the vaccine candidate receives regulatory approval, it is expected that the manufacturer will produce up to 100 million doses by the end of 2020 and potentially more than 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021.