The injection, applied to the left shoulder, lasted only a few seconds. But with it came the hopes of a world locked in a battle with Covid-19 and no small amount of personal risk.
Jennifer Haller, a 44-year-old mother of two, did not flinch in the corner of the Seattle laboratory as a man in a face mask and blue gloves made the injection. She had made up her mind long before that morning in March when she became the first human being to receive a possible vaccine for Covid-19, according to US researchers.
Weeks earlier, the operations manager at a tech startup had seen a call-out for participants in the trial on Facebook. She decided to opt in.
“Even at that time, we were all feeling so helpless,” she said from her self-isolation in Washington state. “There was nothing I could do to stop this pandemic. Then I saw this opportunity come up and thought: ‘Well, maybe there is something I can do to contribute.’”
The final yes was not instantaneous though. As she went through the medical checks needed to get approved for the trial, her husband wondered whether it was safe. The couple had allowed their son to take part in a few medical studies as an infant, but this was different.
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The trial, run by Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle, would involve two doses of an experimental vaccine administered 28 days apart, then a year of monitoring. The vaccine, named mRNA-1273, had been tested on animals and showed promise. This was the first time it would be used on a human. The trial does not involve injecting any part of the coronavirus itself, a point Haller used to reassure her loved ones. But that did not guarantee a smooth ride. The 45 pages of disclaimers given beforehand spelt out the uncertainties, not least that participants could be more vulnerable to catching the virus afterwards. Haller signed anyway.
Haller discovered that she was to be the first person to trial the vaccine only when she arrived for the injection at 8am on March 16 and saw that The Associated Press had been invited for the launch. For the next two weeks she was asked to keep a daily log of symptoms. “The first day I had a slightly elevated temperature,” she said. “The second day my arm was pretty sore. But that was it. Everything was alright after that. It was as easy as a regular flu shot.”
Her efforts have not gone unnoticed even by the US president, or at least those close to him. There has been no message from Donald Trump, said Haller, but footage of her taking the injection has featured in a 30-second campaign advert touting his leadership during the crisis. She admitted, diplomatically, to being “taken aback”.
Haller’s involvement, and that of the trial’s other 44 participants, is only the beginning. Her second dose was due last week. Monitoring will not end until the spring of 2021. She remains confident that a successful vaccine will emerge, whether from her trial or from trials in other countries. “Whenever we get to the vaccine, whatever it ends up being, I will be proud to have been part of the process,” she said.
As for any praise, she said it was the “hundreds of thousands” of people putting their lives on the line by carrying on with their jobs—health care workers, store employees, farmers and janitors—who really deserved it. “That humility is genuine,” she said. “This is one thing I can do, and I am happy to do it. I am not saving the world.”
Others may disagree.