I Signed Up To Be A Vaccine Guinea Pig

You’s Pieter Van Zyl has rolled up his sleeves and joined a clinical trial to test for possible side effects of a Covid-19 vaccine. This is his story

- Pieter Van Zyl

BRAVE. Mad. The devil’s child.

These are just some of the reactions I get from friends and acquaintances when they hear I’ve signed up to be a guinea pig for a vaccine against Covid-19.

But I feel I have no choice. I have to do something.

During the hard lockdown, I volunteered with the Ladles of Love organisation, making sandwiches three times a week for hungry schoolchildren. Yet I also had a burning desire to do something that would make a long-term difference in the battle against this terrible disease.

Then I heard about a call for volunteers in a vaccine trial and I decided, “This is it.” I want to help prove vaccines are safe and save lives. I want to be on the cusp of history, to help eradicate death and devastation, just as vaccines against polio and smallpox have done.

I’m spurred on by my best friend, who’s been on an antiretroviral trial for HIV for the past 20 years. He’s my hero because he did it not only to save his own life but also those of others – and I want to try to do the same.

My trial is called the Ensemble vaccine trial. Scientists running the trial are looking for someone like me: white, late forties and on a range of psychiatric medication. They’re specifically testing to find out if the vaccine has any interaction with the medication I’m taking.

It’s a long-term study: I receive my first vaccine in December 2020 and I’ll be monitored for two years before I receive the second jab.

There are 12 000 participants in 20 sites in South Africa involved in the Ensemble trial. We all have to sign an extensive “participant information and informed consent form”, explained to us in detail by a doctor who specialises in immunology.