WillieBenjamin Loadholt, right, undergoes a checkup from Kiwan Stewart, RN, at The Mount Sinai Hospital prior to receiving his second injection as a participant in the phase 3 clinical trial for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Participating in the Mount Sinai Health System’s clinical trial for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine has been deeply personal for New York City educator WillieBenjamin Loadholt. He says it has provided him with the opportunity to be proactive, to contribute to a potential solution that could put an end to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been “devastating to the African American community.”

For months, Mr. Loadholt says, “Every time I would go on a friend’s Facebook page I would see, ‘We regret to announce the passing or the transition of this person or that person.’ A friend of mine owns a funeral home and they were doing so many funerals. This one’s mom passed away, or this one’s father or sister passed away. It was heartbreaking.”

So, in August, when a friend told him about the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine trial at Mount Sinai, Mr. Loadholt was eager to sign up. “We want to know what’s going on,” he says. “People perish from a lack of knowledge. How can we avoid this? How can we get solutions for this?” Participating in the search for answers to the COVID-19 pandemic is “worthwhile because I am able to help myself as well as my community. We can’t get this if we don’t help each other.”

Mount Sinai is actively recruiting volunteer participants in communities of color. “We want to make sure the trial is representative of the people who were hardest hit by COVID-19,” says Debbie Lucy, Program Manager for the Mount Sinai Health System’s COVID Clinical Trials Unit. Based on a legacy of mistreatment and longstanding inequities in access to health care, Black Americans, in particular, are more hesitant than other groups to embrace the use of experimental vaccines and therapies.

Debbie Lucy

In August, Ms. Lucy and her team began handing out information about the vaccine in the communities around The Mount Sinai Hospital, between 96th and 105th Streets, east of Park Avenue. In fact, Mr. Loadholt found out about the clinical trial from a friend who lives in the area and received a knock on his door from Mount Sinai.

“We have teams of people who are out in different areas trying to educate people and get them involved. We are talking to people, handing out flyers, and making as many connections as we can,” says Ms. Lucy. “We’re going to different grocery stores, hair salons, nail salons, laundromats, restaurants—any place where we think people of color are either working or going to.”

When Ms. Lucy met a man who told her that his family did not have any masks, she says she called up a team member who immediately brought several masks to the corner of East 103rd Street where they were standing. “He was in awe that we went the extra mile to do that for him,” Ms. Lucy says. “For him it was more than the masks we gave him; it was the fact that we connected with him and met his need immediately. We stood out there and talked with him and gave him additional information about participating in the trial.”

Mount Sinai has also held community forums that educate people of color about the Pfizer vaccine trial. In September, Mr. Loadholt discussed his experience at one of these forums. Ms. Lucy says, “We believe it’s easier for people who look like you to talk with you about participating in a trial because we recognize that there’s a lot of mistrust around research among people of color. Our ultimate goal is to find a vaccine that’s going to help prevent COVID-19, but with any trial we also want to test for safety to make sure it’s not causing any negative side effects in people, and that it’s well tolerated.”

Of the more than 180 COVID-19 vaccines under development, Pfizer’s RNA vaccine is one of the furthest along in the phase 3 clinical trials taking place at Mount Sinai and other locations throughout the United States. The vaccine is based on new technology and can be produced completely in vitro, or in a laboratory.

“I am grateful to individuals like Mr. Loadholt who are participating in this vaccine study and helping us to inform others,” says Judith A. Aberg, MD, the Dr. George Baehr Professor of Clinical Medicine, and Chief of Infectious Diseases for the Mount Sinai Health System. “Involvement with communities should not be overlooked due to false assumptions that people of color are unwilling to enroll in clinical trials. Such false assumptions result in harmful health disparities. We must provide everyone with the opportunity to participate in clinical trials and receive linkage to care. Only through engagement and education can people protect themselves and their loved ones.”

After receiving his second of two injections in September, Mr. Loadholt says he feels fine. He does not know whether he received the real vaccine or a placebo, which is how the placebo-controlled, randomized, observer-blinded vaccine trial is designed. He will be able to find this out in two years. “If I did receive a placebo, at least I can help another person of color receive the real one,” he says.

Mount Sinai has provided Mr. Loadholt and other trial participants with either an iPhone app or their own separate device to communicate any symptoms. “The staff at Mount Sinai has been wonderful,” Mr. Loadholt adds. “I would like Mount Sinai to do what they’re doing and be a beacon in the community.”

To potential volunteers, he says, “Don’t be afraid. Try it.”