16
Wednesday, April 28, 2021
Columbia Gorge News
www.columbiagorgenews.com
TD NATIVE IN PFIZER VAX TRIAL
Vaccine trials require 'huge participation'
Neita Cecil
■ By Columbia
Gorge News
T
HE DALLES NATIVE
Jeff Stewart was
surprised when
people who learned he’d
volunteered to be Patient No.
1271 in the Phase 3 Pfizer
COVID-19 vaccine trial
thanked him for his service.
Stewart wasn’t taking a
personal risk for the greater
good. A longtime man-
agement consultant in the
pharmaceutical industry,
he’d read the data from the
first trial phase and knew the
vaccine was safe.
He just enrolled in the trial
in hopes of getting vaccinat-
ed early. Being thanked, he
said, “felt odd to me. ‘I cut the
line? You’re welcome?’”
As it turned out, he didn’t
cut the line. He was in the
placebo group of the study,
meaning he got a saline
injection, and not the actual
mRNA vaccine.
In early March, when his
placebo status was revealed,
he got the real thing. After his
first dose, his arm was sore
like somebody punched it.
“Oh well. Better than
COVID,” he said.
After his second dose, he
had a sore shoulder again
and felt nappish.
He knew to check clinical-
trials.gov for trial locations,
and was happy to find one
near his home in North
Carolina. He was paid more
than $1,000 to be in the trial
— a condition of which was
that he didn’t currently or
previously have COVID.
He got tested for COVID
several times throughout the
trial, and had to track any
symptoms in an online diary.
He was paid another $300 for
a follow-on study, where he
tested himself at home three
times for COVID.
Vaccines in general are
very safe, Stewart said, and
trials for vaccines tend to
be large. But the trials for
Pfizer and Moderna, the first
vaccines given emergency
authorization for use in the
It took scientists “five
days to design the vac-
cine. It took 11 years to
figure out how to do it."
Jeff Stewart
Pfizer trial Patient No. 1271
U.S., were unusually large,
Stewart said.
The Phase 3 Pfizer trial had
more than 43,000 people.
Such trials need “a huge,
huge amount” of participants
to get useful information,
Stewart said. In order to
show that the people who
got the vaccine were actually
protected, a large number of
people were needed in the
placebo group who would
be exposed to the risk of
contracting COVID.
“And they found out there
was a lot less — 95 percent
less,” people who got COVID
amongst those who were vac-
cinated compared to those
who got the placebo.
His friends in the phar-
maceutical industry “look
at the data and say, ‘On a
1-to-10 scale, this is an 11.’ It’s
amazing.”
In fact, he said, “I do not
think there has been a more
successful invention in hu-
man history.”
It took scientists “five
days to design the vaccine,”
he said. “It took 11 years to
figure out how to do it. They
were ready instantaneously.
Five days they had the vac-
cine designed. Five months
later they had it in arms.
“These vaccines have
almost nothing in them,”
Stewart said. “The Pfizer
vaccine, it's mRNA (messen-
ger RNA) which our body is
full of. Plus water, salt, and
fat, and that’s it. It’s not even
a piece of the virus. It’s not
even a vaccine in the tradi-
tional sense. It’s an instruc-
tion to your body to make a
vaccine. And it goes away.
People sometimes compare it
to Snapchat. It’s like a picture
of the bad guy and your body
learns how to fight it, and the
picture itself destructs, and
Jeff Stewart, a native of The Dalles, gets the real Pfizer vaccine in early March after participating in the Pfizer Phase 3 trial, in which he
got the placebo dose.
Contributed photo
it’s gone.”
A 1990 graduate of The
Dalles High School who won
the College Championship
on the TV quiz show
Jeopardy, Stewart had Pfizer
as a client years ago in his
pharmaceutical management
consulting work.
He’s also had Johnson
& Johnson, which also has
an emergency-authorized
vaccine, as a client.
Stewart paid attention
early on to the pandemic.
Seeing looming ventilator
shortages more than a year
ago, he worked with medical
colleagues to get the word out
about using a BiPAP machine
instead. They’re a step below
a ventilator and are typically
plentiful in hospitals.
A much more visible effort
than his serving in a vac-
cine trial has been Stewart’s
regular commentary on
community Facebook pages
in The Dalles, where he said
he works to gently educate
doubters about the seri-
ousness of COVID and the
effectiveness of masks and
vaccines.
Stewart’s training was at
Princeton in immunology,
and he worked previously for
the U.S. government at Los
Alamos National Laboratory
in the mathematics of virus
transmission.
When COVID arrived in
China, Stewart started warn-
ing those who knew him.
He said of his Facebook
efforts in The Dalles: “It’s
my home and it kills me
that so many people lied
about COVID. They lied and
lied and lied. They lied and
people died. And that’s just
not right.
“So with what I’ve been
trained to do, and what I
spent the time to learn, I
could detect things that were
sometimes pretty deep lies
from people you wouldn’t
have expected to lie: Doctors,
scientists, economists —
people that we trust, yet
they lied. They said COVID
was just the flu. It wasn’t
just the flu. Trusted people
said warnings were just
fear-mongering. Now over a
half million Americans are
dead. Practically every week
someone was saying it was all
over. It wasn’t all over. COVID
won’t be all over until most
of us are immune. Those who
really studied viruses knew
better, but it was hard to tell
who was telling the truth and
who was lying. So many lies.”
He didn’t have a na-
tional stage to correct the
record, but he could hop
on The Dalles Happenings
and Unedited The Dalles
Happenings and speak up
when he saw something
amiss.
He described his approach
as a mix of Mr. Rogers and
Bill Nye the Science Guy.
“Tell the truth and be kind.”
Seeing lies about the
virus make him angry. He
said, “I’ve come to peace
with my anger. I think its OK
to be angry. Some things
should make us angry, but
I hope they’re the things
that make us angry because
other people would be hurt if
they’re believed. That anger
is useful.”
When asked what advice
he has for the future, Stewart
said, “Simple. Get vaccinated.
Get one as quickly as you
can. They’re safe. Efficacy is
through the roof. The faster
we get protected, the sooner
COVID will fade away, and
the sooner we can all get
back to being with loved ones
again.”
Order Online.
We’ll bring the groceries to your car.
Shop online and find deals, coupons and personalized offers.
safeway.com | albertsons.com
Not available in all stores.
*When you spend $75 or more. Enter Promo Code SAVE20 at checkout. Not valid on orders fulfilled by Instacart.
THIS OFFER: Not valid on orders fulfilled by Instacart. SUBJECT TO APPLICABLE SERVICE FEE. Order by 12/31/2021. Minimum $75 purchase required. Minimum purchase calculated based on subtotal of all qualifying items in cart at checkout, excluding alcoholic beverages
(where available), tobacco and fluid dairy products. Enter Promo Code SAVE20 at checkout. VALID ONLY FOR 1ST TIME ONLINE GROCERY ORDERS. LIMIT 1 PER HOUSEHOLD. May not be combined with any other free/reduced delivery or service fee offer. We reserve the
right to modify or cancel offers and/or to correct typographical, pictorial and other ad or pricing errors.
ALL ORDERS: Services available in select areas. In some areas, delivery service may be provided by another Albertsons Companies store banner (that banner’s product availability, pricing and promotions will apply) or a third party service provider; or independently by Instacart
(Instacart’s terms and conditions, account registration, fees, product availability, pricing and promotions apply). Online orders require a minimum purchase, unless otherwise noted. Prices for products you order online generally are higher than in Safeway physical stores
and may vary by fulfillment method chosen, unless otherwise noted. Online promotions, discounts and offers may differ from those in Safeway physical stores. Full terms at albertsonscompanies.com/about-us/our-policies/terms-of-use.html and delivery.safeway.com/terms
clip or CLICK!
Valid 4/27/21 thru 5/4/21
10
$
clip or CLICK!
Valid 4/27/21 thru 5/4/21
OFF $ 50
or more *
Signature Farms ®
Navel Oranges
8 lb. bag.
5
Save on your next grocery
purchase of $50 or more*
with your Club Card &
this Savings Award.
*Use this Savings Award on any shopping trip you choose at any Oregon Safeway or
Albertsons store and S.W. Washington stores serving Clark, Wahkiakum, Cowlitz, Skamania,
Walla Walla and Klickitat counties by 5/4/21. This $10.00 Savings Award excludes purchases
of Alcoholic Beverages, Fluid Dairy Products, Tobacco, US Postage Stamps, Trimet Bus/
Commuter Passes, Money Orders, Container Deposits, Lottery, Gift Cards, Gift Certificates
Sales, All Pharmacy Prescription Purchases, Safeway Club Savings, Safeway or Albertsons
Store Coupons and Sales Tax. One Savings Award redeemable per household. COUPON
CANNOT BE DOUBLED. Online and in-store prices, discounts, and offers may differ.
$
ea
*This coupon must be presented at time of purchase at Safeway / Albertsons. Offer
valid with Card and Coupon. COUPON CANNOT BE DOUBLED or combined with
digital coupon. Coupon valid 4/27/21 - 5/4/21.
Prices in this ad are effective 6 AM Tuesday, April 27 thru Tuesday, May 4, 2021 (unless otherwise noted) in all Safeway or Albertsons stores in Oregon and S.W. Washington stores serving Wahkiakum, Cowlitz, Clark, Skamania, Walla Walla and Klickitat Counties. Items offered for sale are not available to other dealers
or wholesalers. Sales of products containing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or phenylpropanolamine limited by law. Quantity rights reserved. SOME ADVERTISING ITEMS MAY NOT BE AVAILABLE IN ALL STORES. Some advertised prices may be even lower in some stores. On Buy One, Get One Free (“BOGO”) offers,
customer must purchase the first item to receive the second item free. BOGO offers are not 1/2 price sales. If only a single item purchased, the regular price applies. Manufacturers’ coupons may be used on purchased items only — not on free items. Limit one coupon per purchased item. Customer will be responsible
for tax and deposits as required by law on the purchased and free items. No liquor sales in excess of 52 gallons. No liquor sales for resale. Liquor sales at licensed Safeway or Albertsons stores only. ©2021 Safeway Inc. or ©2021 Albertsons LLC. Availability of items may vary by store. Online and In-store prices, discounts
and offers may differ.
PG 1,Common
GL158601_042721_POR_ROP_SA_10.125x10.5_TheColumbiaGorge_Common