When a friend approached Pamela Smith asking her to join a vaccination trial in Medford, she quickly reached out to the research center.
“I like the idea of volunteering and contributing,” said Smith.
Smith is an active participant in the Novavax trial. She’ll be part of it for the next two years.
Smith says she could have gotten vaccinated with Moderna or Pfizer, but she opted out.
“I had the opportunity to drop out of the trial whenever I was eligible to get Moderna, but I chose to stay in it because I wanted the data to be there,” she said.
When Governor Brown announced the ‘Take your Shot’ campaign, Smith decided to do some research.
“When I started looking into it, they said you’re automatically entered if it was a Moderna or Pfizer, and so I thought, well, I didn’t have that but I’ve been vaccinated and so has everyone else in the trial.”
Smith said she reached out to the governor’s office and Velocity Clinical Research to find out if she’s eligible.
When they didn’t respond, she contacted us.
We let her know the state just launched a new website that allows vaccinated people who were given the shot out-of-state or at a federal site to sign up for the lottery.
“You do it because you want to participate, you want the public to benefit and I think everyone that participated should be eligible.”
While “registered”, Smith still doesn’t know if she’s considered eligible for the lottery.
Since Velocity Clinical Research is a privately owned company and not a federally owned entity, there’s no telling if Smith’s sign-up will work.
“That makes me think even though I entered the data and I have a confirmation number, it’s not going to count,” she said.
The governor’s office responded to me, giving me the same website link we provided to Smith already.
The Oregon Health Authority did not get back to us.
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