Saint Louis University houses one of 10 Vaccine Treatment and Evaluation Units funded by the federal government to conduct vaccine research. When the National Institutes of Health formed a new mega-network to conduct COVID-19 Phase 3 vaccine efficacy trials at “warp speed,” SLU was tapped to put its expertise in vaccine research to work.
SLU was asked to enroll hundreds of patients in the Moderna mRNA COVID-19 Phase 3 vaccine trial over the course of a few weeks, and our public relations team was tasked with publicizing the trial, encouraging interested participants to fill out a survey on our website.
This effort was complicated by quick timelines, the involvement and oversight of government and pharmaceutical agencies and contractors, many additional competing priorities, and a small in-house PR team.
Despite these challenges, our media outreach efforts were very successful, and we enrolled more participants than all but one of the nearly 100 other study sites.
