Vaccine trial co-lead, Professor Linda-Gail Bekker, said that participants in the placebo arm would be offered a COVID-19 inoculation.
CAPE TOWN - South Africans who participated in the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine efficacy trial will soon be told whether they got the actual jab or a placebo.
Around 7,000 people participated in the company’s ensemble randomised controlled study last year.
At the end of January this year, researchers shared the vaccine’s safety and efficacy data, which showed that it was 57% successful in preventing moderate to severe disease caused by the 501Y.V2 variant.
The phase 3 ensemble study was rolled out in South Africa, the United States, and Latin America last year.
Through the unblinding process, participants of the trial in this country will be told whether they received the vaccine or a placebo shot.
"This is a double-blind study, in other words, the researchers, as well as the participants, don't know their assignment and at this point in the study this is now revealed to both the researchers and to the participants as to which arm they've actually been placed in," said trial co-lead, Professor Linda-Gail Bekker.
Bekker said that trial participants in the placebo arm would be offered a COVID-19 inoculation.
"If they received the placebo arm, in other words, they got the sham vaccine, they will now get the AD26J7J vaccine, the same as their counterparts had got."
Globally 44,000 volunteers participated in the vaccine efficacy study.
In South Africa, more than 107,000 healthcare workers have already received this single-jab vaccine as part of the ongoing Sisonke Open-label Implementation.
By Kevin Brandt
https://ewn.co.za/2021/03/09/trial-participants-find-out-whether-they-got-jab-or-placebo-j-and-j-vaccine
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