When I ask Simeon Courtie how he’s enjoying his new status as a national hero, he gives the question short shrift. “Don’t start with all that,” he laughs. “I’ve already been mocked enough at home.”
The 50-year-old one-time BBC children’s presenter is among some 800 people currently undergoing Europe’s first human trial of a Covid-19 vaccine. Volunteers are being injected with the sample inoculation – or a control substitute – by scientists at the University of Oxford in a bid to establish its safety and efficacy at combating the coronavirus.
But when Courtie, from Oxfordshire, was labelled brave by newspapers on Thursday after being identified as one participant, his three adult daughters took the opportunity to rib him. They know, he says, the real heroes are the scientists developing the thing.
“But it does feel humbling to be a part of it,” he tells The Independent today. “It’s an honour. The world hasn’t ever experienced anything like this and then, just down the road from me, are a team of people who are at the very forefront of this possible breakthrough and I feel privileged to be able to be part of that.”
The vaccine itself has been developed from a weakened version of a common cold virus by a group led by Professor Sarah Gilbert at the university’s Jenner Institute. Should it prove effective, it’s said a million doses could be ready by September.
And, while the World Health Organisation has repeatedly cautioned that it is unlikely such a solution could be ready so quickly, experts familiar with the work appear increasingly confident this could indeed be the silver bullet the world is waiting for.
All of which arguably puts those 800 human guinea pigs among the most important people on the planet right now. What happens in their bodies over the next couple of months has profound consequences for humanity. “Hmm,” says Courtie, a communications coach by profession. “I suppose, in those terms, it is a moment in time but ... all I do is go in and get injected.”
Is he worried about potential dangers? He’s been told that flu symptoms would probably be the worst side effect but history is littered with early vaccines going wrong. In 1955, a polio immunisation distributed in the US resulted in people actually being given polio. More recently, here in the UK, a jab rushed out during the 2009-10 swine flu epidemic has been linked to a spike in the debilitating condition narcolepsy. Even a previous coronavirus vaccine created to combat Sars in 2002 ended up actually exacerbating the virus.
If we didn’t do something because of tiny risk percentages, we’d never gain anything
“I did some reading on the risks before I applied,” says Courtie. “But I have genuine faith in the scientists here. They are the best in the world at what they do. There is always a risk of something unexpected and they do talk to you about that and they say you do need to be prepared there may be something unforeseen that comes up. But I think it’s such a small risk and the cause is so important that it is completely outweighed by the benefits.”
He thinks about this for a moment: “If we didn’t do something because of tiny risk percentages, we’d never gain anything.” He personally volunteered after seeing a tweet looking for participants in mid-March. He did so because his eldest daughter is a PhD medical student – “and she has a nightmare finding volunteers for studies”.
Pertinently, too, he wanted to feel like he was doing something useful. “I’m a freelancer and work was drying up anyway,” he says. “I wanted to be helpful, I wanted to feel constructive.”
He will have his first injection on Wednesday followed by another next month. Other than that – and apart from being given a thermometer and an emergency number should he develop any unexpected symptoms – he will lead his life as normal.
The same applies to all others taking part, it seems – including Elisa Granato, an ecologist at the University of Oxford and the first person who was given a trial jab. “Well, I’m a scientist,” she told the BBC. “And I like to support scientific processes whenever I can and, since I don’t study viruses, I felt a bit useless so I felt this was a very easy way for me to support the cause.”
If initial results appear promising a larger trial of 5,000 volunteers will then be initiated early in the summer. As those volunteers are naturally exposed to Covid-19, it should become clear if the vaccine has given them the required protection.
Prof Gilbert herself has previously said she is 80 per cent sure it will work. “This is my view because I’ve worked with this technology a lot, and I’ve worked on the Mers vaccine trials [another coronavirus], and I’ve seen what that can do,” she said. “And, I think, it has a very strong chance of working.”
Back with Courtie, he hopes she is right. “If there could be a breakthrough on this, that is what the world is waiting for,” he says.