UCLA will take part in research that will test the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines on healthcare workers.

After receiving a $4.9 million grant by the CDC, researchers from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA will collaborate with the Iowa Carver College of Medicine and conduct the study on 10,000 healthcare workers for a year.

While the data for all three vaccines authorized vaccines in the U.S. were debated and examined by the FDA, the data and research that showed its effectiveness was conducted by each corresponding pharmaceutical company.

With funding from the CDC, UCLA and the University of Iowa may gather its own findings with more recent subjects.

Part of the research will look at both vaccinated and non-vaccinated healthcare workers who experience COVID-19 like symptoms, examining how severe the symptoms become and if they test positive for the virus.

Leading the study for UCLA will be Dr. David Talan, a professor of emergency medicine and of medicine and infectious diseases in the UCLA Department of Emergency Medicine.

“Health care workers all across the world have stepped up to meet the overwhelming needs of patients, families and communities during the pandemic and have been prioritized to be the first offered the COVID-19 vaccine,” Talan said in a media release, Monday. “We have an obligation to learn as much as we can about the vaccine’s effectiveness and safety.”

The Preventing Emerging Infections through Vaccine Effectiveness Testing (PREVENT) project will use healthcare professionals from 16 different medical centers across the country and is still accepting volunteers.

There have been 3,794,829 vaccine doses distributed in L.A. County, as of March 24 and 1,232,348 of those have been second doses.

California will expand eligibility to individuals of age 50 and up on April 1, then further open eligibility to all Californians over 16 years old, without restrictions.

 

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