About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 12, 2020)
Weekend Edition-December 12-13, 2020 The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com LOCA^STATE Ga. grandmother takes a shot in COVID-19 fight Associated Press This photo provided by the University of Maryland School of Medicine, shows the first patient enrolled in Pfizer’s COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine clinical trial at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore on May 4. BY LARRY HOBBS The Brunswick News ST. SIMONS — If big bad COVID-19 is ever to be knocked down, it just might take a plucky grandmother from St. Simons Island to do it. But Diane Durand is no hero, she says. Just a determined woman who stood up and took a shot in the arm for the rest of us. That shot contained a vaccine being developed in part by the Pfizer pharmaceutical giant to combat the virus that has spawned a crippling and deadly worldwide pandemic. Durand, 75, was among 44,000 people who took part in Pfizer’s recent clinical trials to develop an effective vaccine to stop COVID19. “It’s what I wanted to do because I wanted to give back,” Durand said Wednesday. “I wanted to be a part of something positive.” Durand first learned about get ting involved in the clinical trials from a friend who lives in Glynn County. The friend took part in the COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials conducted by the biotech company Moderna beginning in August. So Durand obtained a number to call and reached out. After a phone interview with study organizers, Durand received a call back. “It was a selling point that I live on St. Simons, which has a high vol ume of tourist traffic,” she said. Durand made an appointment with the Encore Research Center in Jacksonville. “I met with a doctor who checked to make sure I was healthy,” Durand said. “And they took a blood sample to show I didn’t have any antibodies in my system. ” Because it is a blind test, Durand would not know in advance if she was receiving the vaccine or a placebo, she said. Even the folks at Encore Research did not know whether the shots were placebo or vaccine, she said. Durand received her first shot in early September. She immediately developed a mild fever which, she said, is a strong indication of receiv ing the vaccine and not the placebo. The fever cleared the next day. “I’m not one who sits around and waits for everybody else to do something,” Durand said. “I want us to get through this, and the only way to get through this is to all work together and do our part.” Durand is the mother and mother-in-law to Amanda and Palmer Fortune, proprietors of the popular Pier Village bistro, Palm er’s, as well as partners in The Porch restaurant nearby on the island. Social distancing and other preventive practices against the pandemic have caused financial strains for dining establishments and other service industry sectors. Durand also has two young grandsons on St. Simons Island and a pair of young granddaughters in Tennessee. She would very much like to see a safe return to nor malcy in society while they are all still young. She said the “facts and the sci ence” point to an effective vac cine against COVID-19 as the most direct path back to normalcy in society. But the vaccine will not work without the public’s trust in it, she said. “People should not be afraid,” she said. “They should step up because a vaccine is only as good as the people who take it. If everybody doesn’t take it, then we’re not going to get through this pandemic.” Durand received her second vaccine shot in October. She expe rienced no noticeable side effects other than the quickly subsiding fever. “I had an elevated temperature after each shot,” she said. Trial moderators took blood samples from Durand after she received each vaccine shot. Shortly after her participation in the trials, Durand had a blood sample drawn at a local clinic. The blood showed positive for antibodies, she said, proof that she received the vaccine rather than placebo. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech reported last month that the vaccine proved more than 90 percent effective in stopping COVID-19 during the trials. The European Union said this week it hopes to approve the vac cine before the end of the year. In America, Pfizer hopes to hear from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as early as Dec. 10 on its request to authorize the vac cine in emergency cases. Vaccines traditionally employ inactivated doses of the offending virus to teach the body’s immune system to recognize and defend against the threat. This new vaccine employs genetic strands called mRNA to pro duce proteins endemic to the virus, which in turn triggers the body’s immune system to defend against the virus, according to the CDC. “I wanted to be part of the solu tion,” Durand said. “Also I wanted to know what was really going on. I’m tired of the misinforma tion and people being afraid. This process takes all of us working together. I had a very small part in this. But I had a part.” PENSION State lawmaker indicted, accused of ignoring hit-and-run ■ Continued from 1B In their petition, the Hall County employees claim the appellate court did not decide “whether or not a permanent freeze consti tuted a termination.” The Hall County employ ees’ petition argues that allowing counties to call it a “plan freeze by amend ment,” instead of a plan termination “would be a blank check for counties to deny due process when they eliminate benefits and adopt new, fundamentally differ ent plans with no county contribution, by just calling the entirely new, truncated plan an ‘amendment.’” There is no strict timeline for the Georgia Supreme Court justices to decide if they will hear the case. A high-ranking Georgia state law maker has been indicted on misde meanor charges alleging he wrongly ignored a fatal 2019 hit-and-run crash that his friend called him about as the victim lay dying in a ditch. State Rep. Trey Kelley, who as majority whip is the fourth-ranking member among House Republi cans, was indicted Thursday on a charge of reckless conduct, accord ing to Polk County District Attorney Jack Browning. Ralph “Ryan” Dover III, the man accused of calling Kelley instead of 911 after fatally hitting bicyclist Eric Keais, was indicted on charges of felony hit-and-run and reckless conduct. A lawyer for Kelley said the lawmaker had been “fully coop erative” with the investigation and looks forward to presenting the facts in court. “I feel confident that Trey — who was not even in the car at the time of the collision and was called to the scene after the fact — did noth ing wrong,” Lester Tate wrote in an email. “Once all the facts are known, I believe that he will be vindicated.” Tate said Kelley will turn him self in on Friday, with bail already agreed on. It’s unclear if Dover has a lawyer. Kelley, a Cedartown resident and lawyer, represents all of Polk and parts of Floyd and Haralson coun ties in northwest Georgia. Officials have said Dover hit Keais while driving his SUV on North Main Street in Cedartown on the night of Sept. 11, 2019. Instead of calling 911, Dover drove else where and called Kelley, who in turn called Cedartown Police Chief Jamie Newsome at home, accord ing to authoriites. An officer was sent to the area, unaware that some one may have been injured, and eventually found Keais lying in a ditch, gravely wounded. Keais died from his injuries soon afterward. Georgia’s reckless conduct law says people can’t harm or endanger oth ers, either by acting or failing to act. Browning said in a statement that law enforcement and emergency medical personnel weren’t con tacted until about 45 minutes after Keais was hit. The Polk County Cor oner ruled the death a “homicide by vehicle.” No one was arrested, but attention to the case increased this year, including after a series of sto ries by WXIA-TV. An incident report details wind shield and other significant damage to Dover’s SUV. Kelley told police that night he wasn’t sure whether Dover hit a person or a deer. How ever, Kelley told police he saw a bicycle at the side of the road, according to an incident report. “At that time, I still did not know another human being was involved,” Kelley said in a state ment to The Atlanta Journal-Con stitution earlier this year. “I fully cooperated with law enforcement. ” Browning said grand jurors heard two days of evidence includ ing videos, witness recordings and testimony from law enforcement officers and a state medical exam iner. Browning said he instructed grand jurors to “determine for themselves and to recommend the charges they believed were appro priate and justified under the law” in part because the Georgia State Patrol never filed any charges. Aaron Keais, the victim’s brother, has also called for charges against Newsome. Kelley easily defeated a Republi can opponent in a primary and won the general election in November against a Democrat. Republicans unanimously reelected him as whip last month. Browning said the case now moves to Polk County Superior Court. Associated Press £hc (Times gainesvilletimes.com Honestly local. Email the letters to contests@gainesvilletimes.com Our apologies, but we will not be accepting letters by drop off this year. Email us a picture of your handwritten Letters to Santa Now through December 18 Please only one letter per person, all letters will be published in our December 23 edition.
