COVID-19 has been a devastating turn of events since the beginning of 2020. Recently, there have been some trials for the vaccine. 

“I knew I was going to be one of the last groups of people to get it, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and be responsible,” Stacie Wickliffe said.

Stacie and Jaxon Wickliffe are both volunteers that chose to get an investigational vaccine. Stacie is a drug developer and working-from-home mom with two kids. She isn’t a public worker or over age 70, so she wasn’t a part of the group of people to get the vaccine first.

“My son and I went to the research office that is doing the vaccine research, and we qualified for all the questions to get the vaccine. In the trial, you could either get the vaccine or a placebo, and you don’t know which one you get,” Stacie said.

The trial started in November and since she got the two vaccine shots, she has had no side effects. There was a 33% chance in getting the placebo and a 66% chance of getting the vaccine.

“I had absolutely no side effects, so after a while, I was starting to assume that I got the placebo instead of the actual vaccine. I was a little bummed about it,” Stacie said.

Jaxon on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky. 

“I got chills, body aches, and a low grade fever the day after I got the first shot. It was a nightmare. I’m glad I got the vaccine, but wow, those side effects were brutal,” Jaxon said.

The vaccine tricks your body into thinking it has been infected with COVID -19. To put it into simple terms, your body is injected with a diluted chimpanzee coronavirus so that your immune system will build antibodies against it. 

“To see if I actually got the placebo, I went to get an antibody test, and I had no COVID-19 antibodies, so I know for a fact I got the placebo,” Stacie said. 

She hopes to get the real vaccine in the future so that she can be safe and protect the ones around her as well. 

Stacie and Jaxon participated in the  Astrazeneca COVID-19 vaccine study.