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‘I feel patriotic doing it’: Everett couple joins Moderna phase 3 COVID-19 trial

Dave Gomez and Ann Brooks were both selected for Moderna’s phase three clinical trial for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Gomez expressed interest first, and told his wife.

“My first thought was no, no, this is crazy. He has had health issues in the past. I consider him in the high risk category, that’s why we’re so freaked out about the whole Covid thing,” Brooks said

Gomez, first thought about helping in the trial last summer when a friend mentioned it. He signed up and didn’t hear anything. It was months later when he heard from Kaiser Permanente. He knew it was something he wanted to do.

“It’s a chance for me to help and to kind of go through the experience. I’d never done anything like it before,” explained Gomez. He thinks his Hispanic background made him a good fit for the trial.

Each phase three clinical trial in the US will need 30,000 people. They need people of color to participate, as those communities have been most severely impacted by Covid.

When he told the trial coordinator he and his wife worked together in real estate, encountered many different people, entered different homes, they were instantly interested in signing her up too. For Brooks the idea took some getting used to.

“When I felt like it was safe enough for me to say ‘yes’, it really moved into-- I feel patriotic doing it. I  feel like it’s the right thing to do and it’s the right thing for my country to do it.” said Brooks.

She had her first shot at Kaiser Permanente on Thursday, and Gomez had his two weeks ago. They’ll both go back a month later for a second shot.

Neither has had any side effects and both say it felt like getting a flu shot.

For Brooks it is a time to focus on something positive. She hasn’t seen her son who is in law school out of state since December, she doesn’t feel safe traveling to see him.

“This has been a really dark, long, awful tunnel and for me to have something to hang a little bit of hope on means a lot to me,” said Brooks. She also wants to witness the process so she can tell others.

“I just hope people will listen to reason when this does come out. That they will listen to those of us who did go through the trial and think clearly before we decided to put the needle in our arm. We can attest that this thing, from our end, is being done as scientific and unbiased as it possibly can be.”

Brooks posted about the trial on her Facebook page. She said she wanted to document her participation. She wrote, “someday, one of my grandkids will be able to scroll through grandma’s old-timey Facebook and think, wow, grandma was kind of a badass!!”