New COVID-19 vaccine unit opens at Montefiore and Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine has opened a new COVID-19 vaccine unit.

While disclosing this on Tuesday November 24, 2020, Barry Zingman, MD, professor of medicine at Einstein and clinical director, infectious diseases, at the Moses division of Montefiore Health System, stated that the unit will enroll people in clinical trials that will test the efficacy of vaccines against the novel coronavirus.

Zingman said the vaccine unit opening was due to the rise in the global coronavirus infections.

He said that it’s frightening that nearly 200,000 cases are being reported daily in the United States.

According Zingman, Montefiore’s goal is to ensure more than half of all trial participants are adults most affected by COVID-19 with a focus on people older than 65.

He noted that across the country, older individuals and communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

“Montefiore and Einstein have a legacy of providing inclusive access to cutting edge care,” said Andrew D. Racine, M.D., Ph.D., system senior vice president and chief medical officer at Montefiore and professor of pediatrics at Einstein.

“By ensuring that historically underrepresented patients are included in COVID-19 vaccination research, this effort will help ensure the efficacy and safety of vaccines for these underrepresented patient groups,” he added.

The new vaccine unit builds on Montefiore and Einstein’s leadership conducting COVID-19 trials and providing lifesaving clinical care to thousands of people in the community and has already started enrolling people in the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine AZD1222 trial.

Dr. Zingman is the principal investigator at Montefiore for the vaccine, which is one of 13 COVID-19 vaccines in phase III trials and the first to be evaluated at Montefiore and Einstein.

He was also the principal investigator at Montefiore and Einstein for the ACTT-1 and ACTT-2 National Institutes of Health trials, which evaluated remdesivir (now FDA-approved as a treatment for people hospitalized with COVID-19) and remdesivir plus baricitinib, respectively.

Since March, physician-scientists at Montefiore and Einstein have studied COVID-19’s impact on almost every major health condition, ranging from asthma to cancer; examined health inequities in local communities; and helped determine which treatments work best against COVID-19.

Among its notable research, Montefiore and Einstein faculty:
Published the first major U.S. study on the use of steroids, which confirmed the findings of the large-scale British recovery trial showing that steroids are effective in treating COVID-19; the study also revealed which patients can be harmed by steroids.

The AstraZeneca/University of Oxford vaccine is a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded trial in which two people will get the vaccine for each person who receives a placebo injection. Two injections will be given during the first 29 days.

Montefiore Health System is one of New York’s premier academic health systems and is a recognized leader in providing exceptional quality and personalized, accountable care to approximately three million people in communities across the Bronx, Westchester and the Hudson Valley.