Harrison Ford is spreading the word about the dire need for volunteers in coronavirus vaccine trials.
In a YouTube PSA titled "My Reason," Americans of all different backgrounds, ethnicities and professions revealed why they decided to participate in the vaccine research. The reasons ranged from a nurse longing to do more for the medical community to a grocery store worker wanting people to be able to safely get their food.
Finding a safe and effective vaccine is one way experts say the pandemic, which has claimed over 200,000 lives in the United States and affected millions of people, will end. Ford narrates the PSA, which was produced by Skydance Media CEO David Ellison.
While almost 500,000 people have already volunteered, many more are needed.
"We need to register a million more volunteers to complete the studies that will possibly get a safe and effective vaccine to hundreds of millions of Americans," Ford explained in the PSA. "The vaccine trial needs millions of Americans of every race, location and medical condition to help in one of the most important endeavors of our lifetime."
The Ellison Institute of Transformation Medicine, is working closely with the National Institute of Health on this endeavor.
"Vaccines are not political," Ellison declared in the press release, adding that they are "an attempt for science to help us win against this horrible virus."
The Phase 3 vaccines from Astra Zeneca/ OxfordUniversity, Moderna, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, and Novovax are currently being tested, as are monoclonal antibody treatment and prevention programs from Astra Zeneca, Regeneron, and Eli Lilly, Ellison wrote. The trials will likely be held through March of 2021.
For those interested in learning more, head to www.preventcovid.org.