I Volunteered to Test the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine Trial

I am officially participating in Phase 3 of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) ENSEMBLE vaccine clinical trials by Johnson & Johnson (J&J). My participation began in mid November 2020. I enrolled in this drug trial as I felt a duty to do whatever I could to end the endless lockdowns which have cost millions of working class Americans their jobs and small businesses. The risk of getting ill for a few days or weeks due to an unproven vaccine was a bargain I would have taken any time of the day.  

To enter the trial, I had to answer several pages of questions in regards to my health etc.  On the first appointment, I was given an injection which had a 50-50% probability of being the actual vaccine. Neither myself nor anyone else at the facility knew if I had been given the vaccine.  I have since returned to the original facility on 2 occasions to give blood samples and answer follow up questions.  

On the first appointment, I was given an injection which had a 50-50% probability of being the actual vaccine. Neither myself nor anyone else at the facility knew if I had been given the vaccine.  I have since returned to the original facility on 2 occasions to give blood samples and answer follow up questions. It is anticipated that the first J&J vaccine test results will be reported in late January 2021 or early February of 2021.  

2019-2020 Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Trial Study

It is a privilege to be a part of a study that will further our understanding of the pathogenicity of this virus and our adaptive immune response to combat it. The J&J effort is important because it is the only one of the major vaccine efforts to be testing a single dose and where the main goal of the study is to test whether the vaccine prevents severe or moderate Covid-19, not just symptoms of the disease. Another advantage of the J&J vaccine is that it requires only a simple refrigerator to store it vs. complex and expensive refrigeration methods required by the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

Johnson & Johnson VS. Moderna VS. Pfizer Vaccines

COVID-19 Impact on Travel Industry

As members of the travel industry, we have seen the terrible impact of this disease on the general public, our customers, our vendors, our families, and the travel industry as a whole. With this week’s announcement that the USA is now vaccinating over 1 million people per day, it is our greatest hope that we can back to a normal and orderly world where travel, visits to restaurants, visits to public gathering places, children attending schools in person is once again taken for granted. A successful J&J vaccine will greatly accelerate that progress. 

Without travel, restaurants, and outside experiences, the descent into a mean spirited, tribalistic, hopelessly partisan, beyond intolerant, and win at any costs world is staring at us right in the face. Our cultural institutions and First Amendment rights are under the assault on a daily basis. Reason, logic, and truth can and will be swiftly swept aside by utilizing large corporate media outlets to spread fear, half truths, ignorance, and distortions. This is to say nothing about our children who in many cases have been denied a proper education which has gone on for next to a year. This cannot be allowed to continue. It is beyond an easy sacrifice in joining a vaccine trial in order to put an end to the tragic events of the last year.  

Some Background History

I would like to encourage all of my friends who are skeptical about the vaccines to exercise reason and remain non-partisan. I come from a family of doctors. My great aunt, Frieda Por, was the 2nd woman to be graduated as a Medical Doctor from the University of Vienna in 1902.  She later came to this country in the mid 1930s where she worked at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, MA for over 50 years. She was the personal physician of Ambassador George Kennan and attended to many members of the Kennedy Family including John F. Kennedy. Senator John F Kennedy was called upon several times during the early 1950s to assist my father, Leslie Lenart, to get into this country. I have in my
possession 7 personally signed letters of Senator John F Kennedy. Senator John F Kennedy later became the 35th President of the United States.

My grandfather, George Lenart, graduated from Medical School in 3 years in the mid 1920s. He served in the First World War for 2 years, served 3 years in a Siberian prison of war camp, and then escaped to Vladivostok having walked over 1,200 miles across Siberia.  He later became a PhD in Genetics and carried on his duties as Professor of Endocrinology at the University of Budapest.  At the same time, he was the Head of Pediatrics at the prestigious Szent János’s Hospital in Budapest for over 40 years. I still wear his 1919 Longines sport watch which he used tens of thousands of times to take the pulse of countless children.

He published hundreds of papers in several different languages and gave numerous lectures at Harvard Medical School during the 1950s and 1960s. My grandfather was also a very gutsy man and never shirked his responsibilities. He was always chosen by the medical staff at the hospital to give out “the bad news” when a child had passed away in the hospital. Many doctors did and still run away from that terrible task.  

These 2 family doctors have greatly influenced me over the years. Needless to say when you are brought up around such medical field giants, the expectations of oneself can be quite high. To contribute to medical science runs in my blood! I myself spent my childhood in hospitals with over 11 visits from age 4 to age 14. Many a night was spent in the ICU hoping the sunshine would arrive the next morning. Many fellow ICU patients I met during those days never made it out of the ICU. I learned at a very young age that every day in one’s life is precious. Don’t waste it! It can end at any time.