Desperate for pandemic 'nightmare to end,' Detroit area woman excited to be part of vaccine trial

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Ashley Wilson was living in New York, which was the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak when the pandemic was declared in March. 

Now she is back in her home state of Michigan hoping to make a difference in vaccine trials.

"A lot of people that I work with, lost family members," Wilson said. "The former president of our organization lost her husband really tragically," she said.

Wilson, 24, is a volunteer in phase three of the clinical trial for a potential vaccine made by the drug manufacturer Moderna. 

"It is a project that will involve 30,000 people throughout the United States, there are now 87 hospitals that are involved," said Dr. Marcus Zervos, division chief of infectious disease, Henry Ford Health System

Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit is one of those hospitals. While health experts are looking at more than 200 different possible vaccines, just a handful are being studied in clinical trials.

"So far there are no major side effects or serious side effects that we've seen from the vaccine," Zervos said.

It is promising news as the world tries to fight a virus that has sickened millions of people and killed hundreds of thousands.

"I think we're all so desperate for this nightmare to end, I know I am, and I just think that a vaccine is the only way we are going to move forward," Wilson said.  "I'm excited to be a part of it."