What's it like to be part of a COVID vaccine trial?

Over 57,000,000 doses of various COVID vaccines have been administered across the UK in the past 6 months.

All those have been approved for use by the UK's medicines regulator, the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency).

Before they can be approved, however, they must undergo strict trials so scientists can test their safety and effectiveness.

Despite the UK now having access to 3 different vaccines which are being rolled out at scale: Pfizer, Moderna and the AstraZeneca vaccine, these trials for different vaccines haven't stopped.

In the latest COVID trial 4,000 people across the UK are being enrolled to take the new experimental Valneva vaccine.

It has already been tested for safety, but now scientists want to know how it compares to other, already approved vaccines in terms of its effectiveness.

There's hope that, due to the way the vaccine works, it could also prove more effective against future variants of the coronavirus.

They use different technology to the vaccines that are currently in use which it's thought could help the body recognise a wider range of the virus' attributes.

We've been catching up with our reporter Owen Arands who is now enrolled in the Valneva trial:

"It feels like the right thing to do." He said.

"Obviously, vaccines are the only way out of this thing really."

"I got a phone call saying that they're looking into this vaccine, which is more to do with variants and I thought, well, I might as well."

"They want people under 30 for this one so obviously it's a small pool."

"I wanted to do it just in case they don't have enough other people who want to do it."

" I'm going to get the vaccine at some point, I trust the science."

"In a way, this is just an opportunity to get it early."

Now he's had the first dose of the vaccine he'll be closely monitored to check for any side effects and to see how effective the vaccine would be at helping your body fight COVID.

"There's a big list of things. So, for example, if I wake up with a fever, I have to let them know and then they'll invite me in for an appointment straight away."

"That's so they can figure out whether that is something to do with the vaccine. They want to know as much information as possible."

"I have my second vaccine at the start of June and then after that, there are a further five appointments."

"I've had to download an app and so I have to take my temperature every day and report that into it, as well as any symptoms I have."

"I've also been given a little plastic sheet that looks a bit like a dartboard."

"Basically, I have to put it on the where I had the vaccine and measure if there's any bruising or anything, and if so, report how big they are."

People in the trial are either given the experimental Valneva vaccine or the approved AstraZenica vaccine so scientists can compare the two.

Valneva hopes to be able to put all of the information gathered from the trial together and present it to the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) in Autumn.

The government have already secured 100 million doses as part of their vaccine procurement programme.

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