US Military Selects 5 New Sites for Next Phase COVID-19 Vaccine Trials – Pentagon

WASHINGTON, September 3- The US military has chosen five treatment facilities located in and around Washington, DC, San Antonio, Texas and San Diego, California to carry out the advanced testing phase for a new coronavirus vaccine, the Department of Defense said in a press release on Thursday. The Defense Department said the sites selected are the Naval Medical…

WASHINGTON, September 3 (Sputnik) – The US military has chosen five treatment facilities located in and around Washington, DC, San Antonio, Texas and San Diego, California to carry out the advanced testing phase for a new coronavirus vaccine, the Department of Defense said in a press release on Thursday.

“As part of the Operation Warp Speed (OWS) goal to deliver safe and effective vaccines and therapeutics by January 2021, five [Defense Department] locations have been identified to participate in the Phase III trial evaluating the vaccine candidate AZD1222 under development by AstraZeneca,” the release said.

The Defense Department said the sites selected are the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, the Joint Base San Antonio Brooke Army Medical Center, Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center in San Antonio, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda and Fort Belvoir Community Hospital in Virginia.

“Now that vaccines have passed the first phases of testing for safety, dosing and response, we are ready to move into the next phase where volunteers are needed to join large clinical studies,” Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Tom McCaffery said in the release.

The study is looking for volunteers to take the vaccine, especially from those working in the so-called essential jobs, the release said.