Laura Glesby Photo
Blumenthal alongside researchers.
Yale School of Medicine needs some Heroes Act help from Congress — in order to fund the development of a Covid-19 vaccine that leaves no group of people behind.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut made that argument at a press conference on Friday morning outside Yale’s medical school on Cedar Street.
He stood with a group of Yale doctors researching novel coronavirus treatments and vaccines, as well as with community leaders from across Connecticut.
The press conference took place as negotiations over the Heroes Act (H.R. 6800), Democrats’ proposed $3 trillion spending bill aiming to provide Covid relief, ensue in the U.S. Senate.
Blumenthal urged his colleagues to leave intact the approximately $10 billion dollars allocated to research in the current bill that has already been approved by the U.S. House of Representatives.
“We need at least $10 billion more,” Blumenthal said.
Along with measures to provide housing and food assistance, unemployment compensation, and medical leave, the Heroes Act (H.R. 6800) would fund research at the National Institute of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.
Blumenthal stressed that researchers need the funds to investigate multiple potential vaccine formulas to ensure that the solution or solutions will work effectively for all. “They may not all be effective with different racial and cultural groups,” he said of the different vaccines being developed.
Medical and public health professionals who spoke at the conference affirmed that Yale is committed to ensuring that clinical trials involve racially diverse patients so as to reduce a bias in the science itself.
They highlighted efforts to specifically reach out to Black communities, which have been hit particularly hard by Covid-19, with information about vaccine development via Zoom.
Rev. Leroy Perry.
“African Americans are disproportionately left out of studies and disproportionately affected by Covid,” said Rev. Leroy Perry of Branford, who is guiding outreach efforts. Perry emphasized the importance of science education and trust building with communities that have faced discrimination and underrepresentation in the medical field.
Brown highlighted various Yale researchers’ projects, including Akiko Iwasaki’s efforts to understand how age, sex, and chronic illness affect patients’ responses to Covid-19, Onyema Ogbuagu’s collaboration with Pfizer and BioNTech. And Richard Bucala spoke about how he is working on a Covid vaccine that makes use of self-replicating RNA.
A key piece of developing research centers around the use of replicon RNA as a delivery mechanism for the vaccine, which would facilitate efficient mass production of a vaccine.
Forty-five vaccines are currently in clinical trials, said Blumenthal, and three have reached the third phase of their trials.
Dean of Medicine Nancy Brown.
“The work we do here may be applicable to future pandemics,” said Yale Dean of Medicine Nancy Brown.
It’s not just the medical research that requires preparation and funding, the officials said. Once a vaccine is developed, it needs to be equitably and comprehensively distributed.
Saad Omer: “Vaccines don’t save lives; vaccinations save lives.”
“There’s a saying that vaccines don’t save lives; vaccinations save lives,” said Saad Omer, the director of Yale’s Institute for Global Health, who emphasized a need for a research-backed plan to disseminate a Covid-19 vaccine and promote education and acceptance around it.
Blumenthal added that when it comes time to distribute the vaccine, the federal government must ensure that everyone can receive it for free.
“Expert science is not sufficient,” said Bucala. “We also need strong policy.”