{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://fortenberry.house.gov/news/in-the-news/norfolk-daily-news-fortenberry-credits-norfolk-doctor-his-work-covid-vaccine", "Norfolk Daily News: Fortenberry Credits Norfolk Doctor for His Work on COVID Vaccine Development", "2020-12-23", "2020", "2020-12", "Republican", "Senate", "NE", "Jeff Fortenberry", "F000449", "fortenberry.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "It was encouraging recently to see Congressman Jeff Fortenberry credit a Norfolk doctor for his work in helping to develop a vaccine for COVID-19. It was through the efforts of many people that the vaccine was developed, but Norfolkans should be proud of the hometown connection.\n\n\n\tFortenberry noted that part of the supplemental COVID funding in Congress included $20 billion for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to stimulate investment in vaccine development. Under Operation Warp Speed, over $2.5 billion was directed to Moderna for research, testing, and to purchase over 100 hundred million doses of its vaccine. Robust federal support was also provided to eight other drug companies with vaccines in efficacy trials and 30 others in the early phases of human studies.\n\n\n\tFortenberry wrote in part, Dr. Keith Vrbicky, a Norfolk doctor, has been working on two vaccine trials right here in Nebraska.The new science of this vaccine appears to be highly effective and safe, Vrbicky said. I had two patients who were pregnant at 18 and 26 weeks, respectively, who each became very sick from the virus. They were very healthy women, yet they were in the hospital. We still don't know what the long-term effects may be for their babies. Finding a vaccine is important. That's why I agreed to help do the research right here in Norfolk. In the Moderna trial, we randomized 300 patients 50-50 to a placebo or vaccine group. For the Pfizer trial, we did the same thing with 200 patients. We required weekly diaries and blood draws  some had a sore arm or a nighttime fever. These were among the worst side effects we saw. Not a single patient said they wished they had not entered the trial.\n\n\n\tBoth vaccines were successful in stimulating antibodies for COVID at very high levels. Also, patients in the placebo arm were much more likely to be later diagnosed with COVID than those who got the vaccine.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://fortenberry.house.gov/news/in-the-news/norfolk-daily-news-fortenberry-credits-norfolk-doctor-his-work-covid-vaccine"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 5.249776877462864, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}