Finding a vaccine that can cope with COVID-19 is the great goal of many scientific projects since the pandemic appeared in the world. Among those projects, there is the one at Oxford University, which will enter a new phase starting next week.
Among the 10,260 healthy volunteers and those over 5 years of age who have agreed to act as ‘human guinea pigs’ is the nurse Joan Pons Laplana. This Spaniard will participate in this new phase of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, this is the name of the vaccine whose first tests began in April.
Joan is one of the people who has had the most exposure to the virus due to his profession, something that researchers who contacted him through an email are prioritizing. The positive response was immediate and, although he assures, in an interview with ABC, than “give a little respect”, recognizes that “As a citizen and a nurse, I had to do my bit to end this.”
He returned to ICU when the pandemic broke out
This Spanish toilet has been living in the United Kingdom for almost half his life, in fact, 20 of his 45 years have been spent in the British Isles. When the pandemic broke out, he returned to the front line of work as a nurse in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and confirms that “Another year like this would be unbearable, it is very hard to work 12-hour shifts, with all the PPE, the heat and with people whose life depends on you.”
Pons works on the nursing management team of the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and his experience during these months has influenced the decision to volunteer in trials of this vaccine against the disease. “It should be compulsory, as are those of the children’s calendar”, he asserts in his interview with ABC.
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