ST. GEORGE — While most Southern Utahns await getting the COVID-19 vaccine, a Cedar City man who has already taken the vaccine says he spent two miserable days in bed after getting the shot.

But Clifford Gravett has no regrets about being part of the trial of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and wouldn’t trade the opportunity. After those two days, he woke up feeling perfectly fine and had the knowledge that he was one of the first people in Southern Utah to have a lasting immunity to the virus.

While Gravett doesn’t know for sure if he got the actual vaccine or a placebo, the side effects he had after the second of two shots told him otherwise. 

“I don’t think they’re ever going to tell you are on the placebo,” Gravett, 36, said. “They will never tell me for sure, but based on the reaction that I had to the second shot. I don’t think it was.”

Those side effects were what the attorney said made him “sicker than I’ve felt in a long time.”

And he wouldn’t trade those 48 hours for the world. 

“A day or two of fever and chills and shakes is way better than what you would get with COVID-19,” Gravett said. 

He has felt no ill effects of getting the vaccine since those initial 48 hours. In fact, contact tracers have told him that he has twice been in close enough contact with those infected with the virus to warrant a quarantine but has yet to test positive for the virus. 

The Moderna vaccine is the second vaccine to be approved by the Federal Drug Administration, with the first shipments reaching Southern Utah in the last few days. 

A different vaccine by Pfizer was the first to be approved on Dec. 10 and first reached Dixie Regional Medical Center on Dec. 15. 

Both vaccines use mRNA, or proteins that provide instructions to cells, to build immunity against COVID-19, and each requires two injections no more than 21 days apart.

Where the Moderna vaccine is different is it has had a 5% better effectiveness in trials over the Pfizer vaccine. Another advantage is the Moderna vaccine may also be easier to transport and distribute. Unlike the Pfizer vaccine, which needs to maintained at temperatures of -94 to -74 degrees, the Moderna vaccine can be viable for up to 30 days stored in temperatures between 36 and 46 degrees.

That means while the Pfizer vaccine requires deep-freeze storage, the Moderna vaccine can be stored and transported in the same kind of refrigerators people have in their homes. 

Gravett got his first injection in late August and the second three weeks later. The Cedar City man came out of the experience wanting people to know two things: Don’t be afraid of the vaccine, but also know the first 48 hours may not be a cakewalk.

“I want to get his pandemic over with and the vaccine is the way for it to happen,” Gravett said. “What I don’t want to see is people hearing about ‘oh people are getting side effects’ and becoming averse to getting the vaccine. A day or two of fever and chills and shakes is way better than what you would get with COVID-19.”

Becoming a human guinea pig

Tina Fey, the “30 Rock,” “Saturday Night Live” actress once described not just being passive when it comes to a problem. “Whatever the problem, be part of the solution. Don’t just sit around raising questions and pointing out obstacles.” 

When it came to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gravett wanted to be one of those who was part of solving the problem, rather than just sitting down.

Not that he was sitting down. Gravett commutes almost daily from Cedar City to a law practice across two borders in Mesquite, Nevada, where he practices family law and other litigation. 

But there was another problem. Gravett had no ability to work in a lab and a law degree doesn’t get you clearance to make rounds in Dixie Regional Medical Center. 

“I wanted to do something to help in the pandemic and I’m not a doctor,” Gravett said. “But I could do this. So it was an opportunity to help.” 

Early on in the pandemic, Gravett signed up for a listserv email distribution list from the National Institutes of Health concerning the pandemic to stay up to speed on the latest development. 

One day, he saw an email in the distribution list from Moderna looking for possible participants in a vaccine trial.

Gravett decided to try to become part of the solution. But he didn’t take having an untried vaccine, let alone a new mRNA technology, put into his body lightly. 

“It involves a new technology so I was a little nervous about it.”

But Gravett was also an ideal candidate to be part of the trial between his long commute and frequent interaction with the public. 

“I have a contract to be in court in public on a fairly regular basis which was important because they didn’t want to bring people into the trial who were able to sit at home and be isolated because that wouldn’t be much of a sample.” 

The shots and the side effects

Gravett got the shots in Las Vegas, not knowing if he was getting the actual vaccine or a placebo injection consisting of just saline solution. 

According to an article by the Harvard Medical School, the purpose of a placebo injection in medical trials is to measure if the vaccine works by comparing the group that gets the actual vaccine with the one that doesn’t in a principle that has long been part of the scientific method taught in grade school. If they both have the same reaction – improvement or not – the vaccine is deemed not to work.

That said, placebos don’t usually cause extreme side effects more than soreness at the injection side.

And especially after his second injection during the Moderna trial, Gravett said he had strong side effects. 

He said the first shot had the typical effects after a flu shot – moderate pain in the arm, chills and a slight fever of 99.5 degrees that was gone by the end of the day. No time had to be taken off work.

But the second shot was a different story.

“The trial doc came in and said, ‘You might want to take the next couple of days off. We think you’ll have a rotten time,’” Gravett said.

And it was rotten.

By the time he left the office where he got the injection, he already had a fever of 100 degrees. By the time he got home to Cedar City, he felt nauseous and had much more pain in his arm than he did after his first injection. 

By nightfall, his fever got worse and he had the shakes. At it’s peak, his temperature was 101.9 degrees. He didn’t leave his bed for a day and a half. 

Then, on the morning that came close to 48 hours after his second shot, he felt nothing. 

No fever, no sweats, no shakes. In fact, Gravett said he never felt better, like a switch that had been turned from off to on.

“This wasn’t like a normal sickness where you’re sick for a while and then it slowly goes away,” Gravett said. “It was weird. Even after the time feeling pretty crummy and I woke up Friday morning and I was completely fine.”

What medical experts say Gravett went through was the vaccine putting his immune system into overdrive. In laymen’s terms, it turned the sleeping giant of Gravett’s immune system into an explosive weapon. 

By the time the smoke clears, Gravett’s body had an unstoppable shield that in theory won’t let any COVID-19 virus through any more than the Las Vegas Raiders offensive line would let a Pop Warner player get to their quarterback.

And with his new tram of antibodies, a contingency on being part of the study was to ignore some of the advice Southern Utah residents have heard since March and make sure he has nearly daily interactions with the public. 

And after those initial 48 hours in mid-September, Gravett said he has had absolutely no side effects. 

But he said he has had a natural reaction of feeling maybe a little more invincible than those around him. And no regrets about being a human guinea pig that helped lead ultimately to an immunity many Southern Utahns will have to COVID-19 by this summer should they choose to take the vaccine.

“Of course, I was doing my part to help a little teeny bit. And if I got that immunity out of the deal, so much the better,” Gravett said. “Balancing the unknowns of the new vaccine versus the known risk of becoming ill and infecting others, I would recommend anyone can get the vaccine.”

Read additional stories in this series:

• The COVID-19 vaccine is coming: Will people be forced to take it, and is it safe?
• Initial timetable of when people will be getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

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