Merton medics commended for Covid-19 vaccine trial support

Two Merton final-year medical students, Hannah Bacon and Georgina Whitaker, have been commended for playing a significant part in urgent recruitment to the COV-Boost (third vaccine) clinical trial.

The trial's Oxford Lead Fellow, Dr Jonathan Kwok, explains:

"Hannah and Georgie leapt at the chance to help us, quickly grasped the technical complexities of the trial (no mean feat with seven different treatment arms), and enthusiastically threw themselves into the task of screening new participants. With Hannah & Georgie's support we have screened or enrolled 185 participants, to meet our COV-Boost target for Oxford, putting us on track to deliver immune response results by late summertime. We are very grateful to them and wish them every success as they commence their F1 jobs this August."

Led by the recently knighted Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, the Oxford Vaccine Group was responsible for the COV001, COV002, COV003 and COV005 trials, that enabled the emergency approval of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, which has now been given more than 500 million times, to save many lives around the world. For the COV-Boost trial, Oxford is one of 17 hospitals around the UK supporting University Hospital Southampton to answer the critical question of whether a third vaccine booster would benefit the UK population prior to any potential winter wave of Covid-19.

(L-R): Professor Matthew Snape (Chief Investigator of the Com-COV trial), Dr Matt Rajan (Oxford Vaccine Group clinical fellow), Dr Hannah Bacon, Professor Sir Andrew Pollard (Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group), Dr Georgina Loncarevic-Whitaker, Dr Jonathan Kwok (Oxford Lead Fellow, COV-Boost trial).
(L-R): Professor Matthew Snape (Chief Investigator of the Com-COV trial), Dr Matt Rajan (Oxford Vaccine Group clinical fellow), Dr Hannah Bacon, Professor Sir Andrew Pollard (Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group), Dr Georgina Loncarevic-Whitaker, Dr Jonathan Kwok (Oxford Lead Fellow, COV-Boost trial).