The group is called «Grais» («Civic Explorers»), and they recently turned a year old. In December 2020, volunteers came to participate in clinical trials of the second Russian vaccine, but in the end they entered into a fight against it. This struggle cannot be called unequal: in a group of volunteers — biologists, mathematicians, programmers, practically any specialists are ready to join the work at any time and anywhere in the country. Over the course of a year, a small volunteer telegram chat has turned into an extensive research network, which has been engaged in educating anti-Axis, and in the future plans to test medicines in Russian pharmacies.
Andrey Krinitsky , organizer, ideological inspirer … Programmer
In the fall of 2020, Andrey, an entrepreneur, was looking for an opportunity to get vaccinated against covid and reliably vaccinate employees of his company. He went to the Sputnik test, but received a placebo. But from these trials I learned invaluable experience: how the volunteers themselves can act as researchers, testing the effectiveness of the vaccine. In December, Andrei went to participate in clinical trials of the second Russian vaccine, EpiVacCorona. Novaya wrote more than once about the fact that in the end we all learned about her.
— From the very beginning I treated EpiVacCorone with great confidence. I have created a site dedicated to trials. And we had a chat where volunteers talked. Filling out the questionnaires and passing the examinations before the tests, I left notes: there is such a chat, there is a website, go in. Then other volunteers joined me, word of mouth was added.
Andrey Krinitsky. Photo from personal archive
At first, it was possible to connect to the volunteer chat only by showing proof that you were participating in the tests. Even then, it turned out that the team was not chosen randomly.
— The first to test vaccines were scientists, doctors, experts in mathematical statistics, — continues Andrey. — Well, just citizens, like me, for whom it was important. That is, people are active and competent enough. These pioneers have become the core of our team. We were united by a thirst for knowledge and a desire to independently test the vaccine.
We divided the work: someone was engaged in collecting information, moderation, surveys of participants, primary data processing. At different stages, different burdens fell on different people. At the start — mainly on molecular biologists, who were also among the volunteers. Mathematical statisticians gave us a series of lectures so that we could at a basic level distinguish «good» statistics from «bad» ones. Doctors talked about the experience of observing the effects of vaccines in the field.
Then the group began to be joined by specialists who did not participate in the tests themselves, but helped to interpret the observations of the volunteers. And so began, as Andrei says, «cross-education»: working together, everyone learned from each other. He himself, a programmer, six months later was already operating with terms from molecular biology at the level of a graduate of the biology department.
When the volunteers began to have questions about the drug, the biologists in the group suggested how to conduct an independent review. An experiment was needed with the plasma of those vaccinated by EpiVacCorona — whether it is capable of neutralizing the virus. Andrey turned on all his organizational talents to find a laboratory for this. Professor Alexander Chepurnov in Novosibirsk agreed to the experiment.
Volleyball programs Elena Malysheva. The program never aired. Photo provided by the heroes of the publication
“The vaccine was tested in Moscow and Tyumen, and the plasma had to be delivered to Novosibirsk,” says Andrey. — It was a whole logistic operation. Our team includes an entrepreneur who specializes in veterinary test systems, he has good connections with the courier service, who knows how to correctly deliver biomaterials. He found the necessary refrigerator, dry ice, and cold storage devices. And he helped to organize the shipment correctly. True, all the same, there were some adventures. The courier, who was carrying five test tubes with plasma from Tyumen, disappeared. We no longer knew what to think. Then it turned out that the driver had been detained by the police for some kind of violation. Fortunately, there were frosts in Siberia and the plasma in these test tubes did not thaw, and the rest flew safely by plane.
The volunteers did not make secrets from their experiment, they informed Rospotrebnadzor. They tried to convince them not to get involved with Professor Chepurnov: he, they say, has a dislike for the vaccine developers and will be biased.