topic Re: Ideas on why he was rejected please in Community Chat

Ideas on why he was rejected please

marmot24 — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 20:46:08 GMT

I live in a major city in the northeast. Our university is part of the COVID 19 vaccine program. My oldest son, recently retired and an alumni of said university, volunteered to be a part of the trials.

The interview was going well until they asked if he was color blind. He answered yes and they said ..sorry you're not eligible. He asked why but she said she couldn't say.

Any ideas why being color blind would eliminate you from testing a vaccine?

Re: Ideas on why he was rejected please

FrostyBabe1 — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 20:51:43 GMT

I can't speak to your son's case specifically, but often times drug trials require participants to be in absolutely perfect health - no conditions or illnesses of any kind. Perhaps there's a possibilty of vision changes as a side effect of the particular vaccine, so anyone with any type of vision issue would be ruled out.

I spent the bulk of my career in pharma, and when ads went out looking for study participants, they almost always specified an acceptable age range as well as numerous other requirements, such as women of childbearing age had to prove they were using contraception, no hypertension, no diabetes, no high cholesterol, weight in the acceptable range for height, etc.

Re: Ideas on why he was rejected please

chrystaltree — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 20:52:49 GMT

I don't know but I suspect it has something to do with a person's genetic profile. Color blindness results for specific genes. I far from being knowledgeable on this stuff but I do know that genes and their interactions with each other can affect different body parts and systems. It doesn't mean he is ineligible for all vaccine trials, just the vaccine that group is investigating. Interestingly, I read not long ago that a new gene therapy to correct severe color blindness is in trials now.

Re: Ideas on why he was rejected please

marmot24 — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 20:54:29 GMT

That makes sense...thanks

Re: Ideas on why he was rejected please

Pearlee — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 22:46:45 GMT

Color blindness isn't real common so perhaps they wanted all subject to be more representative of the public at large, rather than being "special" in some way. Kind of what @chrystaltree said but expressed differently.

Re: Ideas on why he was rejected please

Sooner — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 22:53:48 GMT

It doesn't fit the genetic profile of the sample subjects they need.

Re: Ideas on why he was rejected please

Still Raining — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 22:53:57 GMT

Perhaps they had a quota which was filled? I was rejected for registering as a bone marrow donor because they had many white females already.

Re: Ideas on why he was rejected please

KarenQVC — Sat, 26 Sep 2020 00:32:11 GMT

I have been eliminated from studies because of being left handed.

Re: Ideas on why he was rejected please

bikerbabe — Sat, 26 Sep 2020 01:17:36 GMT

Monitoring for side effects would include checking for vision changes - preexisting colorblindness complicates that assessment.

Re: Ideas on why he was rejected please

Mindy D — Sat, 26 Sep 2020 19:45:14 GMT

@marmot24 wrote:
I live in a major city in the northeast. Our university is part of the COVID 19 vaccine program. My oldest son, recently retired and an alumni of said university, volunteered to be a part of the trials.
The interview was going well until they asked if he was color blind. He answered yes and they said ..sorry you're not eligible. He asked why but she said she couldn't say.
Any ideas why being color blind would eliminate you from testing a vaccine?

@marmot24 What city and what university? I can check to see the type of vaccine the university is testing and I can see the criteria for eligibility and ineligibility. I'll post the trial details here so that you can read what is written. Just a guess in advance of my checking is that the experimenters might check for visual side effects using tests which can not be properly used if individuals have color blindness. EDITED: Sorry, I forgot to say that some medications and chemicals are known to cause acquired color blindness and the researchers might want to exclude those that are color blind before testing in case color blindness arises as a side effect. Of course, the acquired kinds of color blindness differ from the genetic forms and could later be distinguished but it is easier to not have to determine this during the trials.

Re: Ideas on why he was rejected please

hckynut — Sat, 26 Sep 2020 17:05:32 GMT

@marmot24

I have several opinions I could throw in from being guinea pig in 2 different studies. Neither had anything to do with a study of an illness. If the person doing his interview couldn't say? Could be just a lay person familiar with interviewing people who was just following their script.

If he really wants to know he will probably have to spend some time trying to contact someone that authored the study or had involvement in it.

hckynut

Re: Ideas on why he was rejected please

marmot24 — Sat, 26 Sep 2020 17:19:02 GMT

Thanks for all your ideas...it's the University of Pittsburgh.

Re: Ideas on why he was rejected please

Zhills — Sat, 26 Sep 2020 17:26:39 GMT

That is why I don't put much faith in clinical trials anymore.

I was recommended for an allergy study...had a reaction to one med, one time, NO, not qualified.

They will not accept anyone that they think might not give them a 100% positive outcome for whatever they are testing!

Re: Ideas on why he was rejected please

Icegoddess — Sat, 26 Sep 2020 17:38:49 GMT

@Still Raining wrote:
Perhaps they had a quota which was filled? I was rejected for registering as a bone marrow donor because they had many white females already.

@Still Raining that makes no sense whatsoever to me. They're begging for people to apply to bone marrow registries. The more the better and better chance for a match. I've seen bone marrow drives and never have I seen them say they don't want white women to test. I got tested years ago when it took a blood sample.

I got kicked off of the bone marrow regiestry though, but not for a reason like that. They thought I was a match and as I was going through the questioning process it came out that I have a rare genetic slight propensity for blood clotting. It made no difference for the person receiving the marrow, but out of abundance of caution for the donor they won't allow it.

Re: Ideas on why he was rejected please

Cakers3 — Sat, 26 Sep 2020 18:24:39 GMT

@Icegoddess wrote:
@Still Raining wrote:
Perhaps they had a quota which was filled? I was rejected for registering as a bone marrow donor because they had many white females already.
@Still Raining that makes no sense whatsoever to me. They're begging for people to apply to bone marrow registries. The more the better and better chance for a match. I've seen bone marrow drives and never have I seen them say they don't want white women to test. I got tested years ago when it took a blood sample.

I got kicked off of the bone marrow regiestry though, but not for a reason like that. They thought I was a match and as I was going through the questioning process it came out that I have a rare genetic slight propensity for blood clotting. It made no difference for the person receiving the marrow, but out of abundance of caution for the donor they won't allow it.

@Icegoddess It isn't not wanting white women to test.

Other ethnicities have particular markers that are not found in white donors.

In other words, AA, Asians, HIspanics-they have a better chance of finding a donor from persons of their own background and successful treatment.

There may be many donors out there but not enough donors for particular ethnic groups.

Re: Ideas on why he was rejected please

Still Raining — Sat, 26 Sep 2020 19:23:14 GMT

@Cakers3 wrote:
@Icegoddess wrote:
@Still Raining wrote:
Perhaps they had a quota which was filled? I was rejected for registering as a bone marrow donor because they had many white females already.
@Still Raining that makes no sense whatsoever to me. They're begging for people to apply to bone marrow registries. The more the better and better chance for a match. I've seen bone marrow drives and never have I seen them say they don't want white women to test. I got tested years ago when it took a blood sample.

I got kicked off of the bone marrow regiestry though, but not for a reason like that. They thought I was a match and as I was going through the questioning process it came out that I have a rare genetic slight propensity for blood clotting. It made no difference for the person receiving the marrow, but out of abundance of caution for the donor they won't allow it.
@Icegoddess   It isn't not wanting white women to test.

Other ethnicities have particular markers that are not found in white donors.

In other words, AA, Asians, HIspanics-they have a better chance of finding a donor from persons of their own background and successful treatment.

There may be many donors out there but not enough donors for particular ethnic groups.

@Icegoddess @Cakers3

Several of us were working out at a children's hospital and one person knew the program director. So we went over. Northern European white women are a glut on the market. One person was full blooded southern Chinese and got to try out.

Bone marrow is very different than blood.

If anyone has a "odd" heritage, they should volunteer. Jewish via Spain? American Indian? It is a priceless gift.

Re: Ideas on why he was rejected please

Annabellethecat66 — Sat, 26 Sep 2020 19:41:29 GMT

You know it's interesting that supposedly it's supposed to be people who are in perfect health.

I remember asking someone (a friend of my daughter's who travels the world working on viruses, etc). Until recently she was working with Aids patients in Africa).

I asked why these medicines mention every single thing that could happen to someone taking whatever medicine it is.

She said something like, (paraphrasing my version) "Often these people are total hypocondriacs". They choose these people because they will mention the slightest change in their body during the trials.

Some of the possible problems with medicines are like 1 in a million happening, yet they mention it.

It's like "taker beware", kinda a version of "buyer beweare".

When my son in law was in college he was asked to be in a trial of some kind of cold prevention or other. He was all for it.

My daughter (who was seriously dating him at the time) said, "No way in 'heck' are you doing that". So he said no.

But during the course of his 3 years (he graduated in 3 years in college) he was asked many times if he wanted a little extra money to participate in various trials.

I guess each trial has various requirements.

Oh! I forgot to mention. He was asked if he'd like to 'donate' sperm once.

Thank goodness my daughter had a say in that one too. Ha!