Juan Antonio Sorto, Salvadoran in the USA. UU. who received trial vaccines for COVID-19 from modern pharmaceuticals, recounts his experience and the secondary symptoms he experienced.
Salvadoran Juan Antonio Sorto, 35, is one of thousands of people participating in recent months in various studies of pharmaceutical companies, who are looking for the most effective vaccine against COVID-19.
Sorto participated since August in a study by the company Moderna, one of the three companies that are leading in this pharmaceutical effort, along with AstraZeneca and Pfizer.
Pfizer is the company with which the United States has already begun the application of dose miles from yesterday, after passing this company the controls of the FDA (United States Food and Drug Administration) and d ‘other international medical control authorities.
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In the case of El Salvador, the Government has an agreement with AstraZeneca to receive at least two million doses, which as confirmed yesterday by the Minister of Health, Francisco Alabí, would begin to apply to the Salvadoran population in the first three months of 2021.
The United States began mass vaccination with Pfizer medication on December 14th. / Photo AFP
Countries such as El Salvador, which have little purchasing power compared to other economically more powerful nations, do not aim to have access to the vaccine at least before the end of the year, despite being part of the Covax program, in which there are also 171 other countries seeking an equitable distribution of a working vaccine. The United States is not part of Covax and has made its own agreements, as with Pfizer.
The testimony of Sorto
When Juan Antonio Sorto (35 years old) agreed to volunteer to try an experimental vaccine against COVID-19 from the modern pharmaceutical company on his body, he spoke to him knowingly that he could suffer severe side effects, which would even include to be paraplegic, or until losing the life. But he made the decision out of love for his family, his grandmother, and a commitment to the Latino community.
Born in the United States but raised in San Miguel, Juan later emigrated permanently to Texas, where he resides and currently studies at the University of Texas Southern in Houston, where he is completing his doctorate in Philosophy in Urban Planning. It was in the space city where it was introduced for the local periods that Modern was looking for volunteers.
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“The laboratories were requesting all kinds of volunteers, but they were making the call to the Latin and African American community, for lack of representation of these two groups in the studies,” says Sorto, who registers as a volunteer with the number MRNA-1273- P301_Participant Card_V1 according to record of July 6 that shared with El Diario de Hoy.
Modern and other laboratories “were also looking for people who were at high risk for COVID. I work for the criminal courts and I expose myself every day to having the COVID, because of the number of people I have to supervise. I am also working on my thesis to obtain my doctorate, which requires that I also have contact with people ”, says the volunteer.
I went out with his grandmother, who lives in San Miguel. / Photo courtesy EDH
The Salvadoran began the vaccination process in August, when he was introduced to local news that Moderna was looking for volunteers. I did a blood test on him and then he applied the first two doses last September, and the second in October.
Prior to receiving these doses, Juan was informed of the risks involved in participating in the study by Moderna.
“My mother did not agree with me to participate in the studies because of the high risks, which include: fever, vomiting, fatigue. I was also able to remain paraplegic and lose my life in the study process. But none of that mattered to me, because I knew the great need we had to have a vaccine that is impacting everyone. And I made the decision to participate as a moral duty to continue our humanity. I did it thinking about my grandmother who is in El Salvador, and I want her to see me graduate in 2021 with my doctorate, because I am the first in all generations (of her family) to achieve those honors “, explains Sorto.
The effects
When the first dose of the vaccine was placed, Juan says he only felt a small pain in his shoulder. But when the second dose was applied, he had “fever, fatigue and bone pain,” he explains. Although these discomforts lasted only one day. “I had 24 hours with the symptoms, but for the next day I was already correcting you, working and doing my activities.”
Since then, Moderna has done blood checks and COVID testing every month, Sorto explains, as will the rest of the volunteers. They also receive weekly calls from pharmaceutical doctors, and have contact numbers from doctors and clinics to go to if they have any health complications.
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If it is positive for COVID-19, the instruction given to Sort by Moderna is that “the first thing is to go to a hospital. We have documents available not only for the contagion of COVID-19 but also if we have some other symptoms that are part of the studies ”.
Juan is 10 years old from visiting San Miguel at Christmas and giving toys to children from communities in the eastern city, as well as visiting his family. This 2020 cannot be done. / Photo courtesy EDH
Although he knows that he has already received a dose of Moderna’s experimental vaccine, Juan does not trust himself and continues with preventive measures to avoid becoming infected. In addition, he has made the decision not to travel to El Salvador this year, a decision that hurts him, he can not see his grandmother or distribute toys in Miguel communities, a custom he had fulfilled in recent years 10 years.
Luck thinks all this risk and sacrifice will be worth it, as it feels part of the search for a long-term solution, so that doctors and authorities around the world can have a safe and effective vaccine against Sars-Cov-2. What prompted him to volunteer is his family, his community and his grandmother.
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“I have had to make decisions and focus on the long term. I have the desire to give my grandmother the diploma of my doctorate, when she is well enough to travel. The next time I return to El Salvador, I want her to leave with my diploma, which she and my mother will never be able to achieve ”, given with emotion Juan.
As with hundreds of migrants from El Salvador and other Latin American countries, Juan’s story is full of sacrifices. “My mother had to leave school in the second grade to come to the United States. My grandmother doesn’t know how to read or write, “he said. And it is for them that he wants to succeed with his thesis and, already with an effective vaccine, travel to El Salvador and share the joy of being together.
The volunteer file
Name: Juan Antonio Sorto
Age: 35 years
Height: 1.80 meters
Weight: 190 pounds
Country of birth: United States, raised in San Miguel during his childhood
Occupation: Student at the University of Texas Southern, Houston. He is completing a PhD in Philosophy in Urban Planning. He works in the Houston criminal courts