The Department of Defense (DoD) has named five DoD locations to participate in the Phase III trial evaluating the vaccine candidate under development by AstraZeneca for Operation Warp Speed (OWS), the department’s goal to deliver safe and effective vaccines and therapeutics for COVID-19 by 2021.
“The Department of Defense continues to play a key role in the development of a potential COVID-19 vaccine,” said Hon. Tom McCaffery, assistant secretary of Defense for Health Affairs (OASD(HA)). “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.”
The DoD has selected Naval Medical Center San Diego; Joint Base San Antonio Brooke Army Medical Center; Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center (San Antonio); Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (Bethesda, MD); and Fort Belvoir Community Hospital (Fort Belvoir, VA).
To ensure that the vaccines work to protect those at greatest risk, participation by people from communities that are hardest hit is critical. The study will investigate people who are at an increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The DoD has identified people of increased risk, including those working in an essential job; living in densely populated residential environments; living or working in congregated living facilities; and members of a communities that has been hardest hit by this pandemic.
OWS is a government, interagency initiative that is focused on delivering 300 million doses of a safe, effective vaccine for COVID-19 and is part of a broader strategy to accelerate the development, manufacturing and distribution of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics for the COVID-19 virus.
The DoD Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND) has worked in coordination with the OASD(HA) and the Defense Health Agency (DHA) to support OWS.
