EXCLUSIVE: Local Jacksonville woman talks about her participation in the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine

Jacksonville, FL. — Dannelle Howden is one of 30,000 people across the country participating in the Moderna coronavirus vaccine study.

The biotechnology company announced on Monday it plans to submit for an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) with U.S. FDA in the coming weeks, after reporting the vaccine shows 94.5% vaccine efficacy.

“It’s really exciting,” Dannelle Howden said. “I’ve kind of had a personal reason for getting involved, so this is definitely really exciting for me.”

The Jacksonville mother said she got involved for many reasons.

She said she felt called to help.

But, her main reason for participating is because of her boyfriend.

“My boyfriend is actually in really high risk categories,” Howden said. “Because we don’t live together, we’ve had to spend a lot of time apart. Every time we’re together we’re masked up. We’re outside.”

Howden got her latest injection in September.

She said Moderna has her check-in on its app every week and answer general questions about her symptoms.

Action News Jax reporter, Meghan Moriarty, asked if she has had any side effects.

“Second time I had some fatigue,” she said. “But, I did also come down with a cold at the same time, which is also part of their process.

If you get sick, you have to go in and they test you for like 21 different viruses.

Mine came back that I had the rhinovirus”

Otherwise, Howden said she feels healthy.

The study is fully enrolled and is therefore not enrolling new participants, according to the Director of Corporate Communications for Moderna.

Cox Media Group