What It’s Like To Be A COVID Vaccine Guinea Pig arrow Gwynne Hogan gets a trial vaccine or a placebo. Gwynne Hogan / Gothamist / WNYC I first see the flyer for the NYU Langone’s vaccine trial while getting a COVID test at Bellevue Hospital before Thanksgiving. So when I return for a second COVID-19 test a week later, and see a man in a white coat trying to recruit people for the trial, I tell him I am eager to partake. I apparently win him over, and a few days later set up an appointment. The day of my appointment, I’m ushered into a small doctor’s room on the second floor of Bellevue Hospital, though the trial’s being conducted by NYU Langone Health’s Vaccine Center. After two hours of questions about my medical history, a physical exam, and a pregnancy test, I’ve qualified for AstraZeneca’s United States vaccine trial … and have become a guinea pig for science.