TAMPA, Fla. -- James A. Haley Veterans Hospital recently began a clinical trial of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate from Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson.

The hospital's director of infectious disease clinical research said the goal is to recruit 400 participants, but there's a long way to go to meet that mark.

"We have such an issue with this basically exploding in the United States, I think that these trials are helpful," said Dr. John Toney, also Haley's assistant chief for infectious disease.

Toney said the more people enrolled and closely monitored in those trials, the better. He said part of the challenge with recruiting seems to be the anxiety surrounding a new vaccine. According to Toney, it's especially important to recruit participants who are members of racial and ethnic minorities.

"Those are the populations that we really need to get better data about how good these vaccines are because they're the ones that are more at risk of getting serious infection or getting so serious that they just don't make it," Toney said.

Bay Pines VA Healthcare System is taking part in three trials studying COVID-19 treatments. Chief of Staff Dr. Amin Elamin praised research offices at both the national level and at Bay Pines for getting the efforts up and running.

“A number of studies, and all of them happened very quickly. I think everybody rose to the occasion and were able to get engaged and get things moving," said Elamin.

Bay Pines is also one of Operation Warp Speed's VA Vanguard Sites and is set to begin enrollment in one of its vaccine trials next month. 

"As an intensivist who works in ICU and takes care of patients who have severe COVID disease, I feel so privileged to be part of that crusade," said Elamin of the opportunity for Bay Pines to take part in the study.

Elamin said the health care system is also looking ahead and preparing to vaccinate a large number of veterans in a short period of time.

"We've all been engaged in the actual process into practicing that situation -- how many staff we need, what kind of equipment we need, how many freezers we need to store the vaccine," said Elamin.

Toney said the trial at Haley will be focused only on veterans. To learn more, call (813) 972-2000, ext. 6939. While Elamin said Bay Pines' COVID-19 treatment trials are only open to veterans, the vaccine trial will also be open to the community.

You can learn more at: baypines.va.gov