Mike Visick, CRN SWP Chief Operating Officer and PANORAMIC trial participant

Mike Visick is Chief Operating Officer of the NIHR Clinical Research Network South West Peninsula (CRN SWP) and a registered nurse.

After contracting COVID-19 and being incapacitated with relatively severe symptoms, Mike realised he could enrol on the PANORAMIC study, and was randomised to receive the antiviral medication being trialled.

Now recovered and back at work, Mike says he is "bursting with pride" at the quality of the experience offered to trial participants by the NHS and NIHR. He takes up the story:

"My wife, who is a primary school teacher became COVID positive, but after she completed her ten-day isolation and recovered well, I thought because I was fully vaccinated, that it had done its job and I had not been infected. However, on the Sunday afternoon I felt slightly under the weather and decided to conduct a Lateral Flow Test (LFT), expecting it to be negative, thinking I just had a cold. I was actually genuinely surprised that I was positive.

"The next day I felt significantly worse and it was apparent that the virus had taken hold. I expected at this point to take some paracetamol and carry on working from home, but a symptom that had developed was terrible vertigo accompanied by nausea, which became quite debilitating.

"Still in denial, I expected to wake up Tuesday morning feeling much better and able to function well enough to work from home. However, I knew I was in fact declining. As a registered nurse I was all too aware of the increasing symptoms that I was now experiencing, fatigue, cough, aches, shortness of breath after any exertion whatsoever, and with increasing vertigo and nausea, at this point I began to wonder if I was going to be one of the statistics that would end up hospitalised.

"Wednesday morning, with symptoms worsening I realised that I would benefit from intervention, and immediately enrolled onto the PANORAMIC trial. Enrolment was simple, quick and done in a very professional and slick manner. I was fortunate to be randomised to one of the antiviral medication arms, and it arrived as promised in the post the very next day. The trial kit included easy to follow instructions with all requirements clearly detailed.

"After only two doses of the antiviral medication I could feel I was improving, and by the end of the five days prescription I felt well again. I had a negative LFT on day nine and day ten and now feel 100 per cent."

Antivirals are medicines which can be swallowed as a tablet, to help treat people with COVID-19 infections to reduce the risk of hospitalisations and death. Molnupiravir, which is currently being deployed through the study and which Mike received, has shown to reduce this for at risk, non-hospitalised adults with mild to moderate COVID-19 by 30 per cent - potentially saving thousands of lives once the drugs are available to the NHS.

Mike says the way the study is run makes it easy to take part. He continued: "The study diary captures important trial data, and the daily prompt of a text message ensures I don't forget to do it. It literally takes a matter of minutes to complete and is not onerous.

"In all I feel the PANORAMIC trial is an outstanding success, it is well designed, conducted with the utmost professionalism and most importantly for me, the antiviral medications are a positive advancement in the fight against COVID. As Chief Operating Officer of the CRN SWP I take great pride in the fact that I play a small part in improving patient outcomes through participation in clinical trials. However, I had not anticipated being the patient myself.

"But now that I have experienced participation in NIHR clinical trials as a patient rather than a healthcare professional delivering research, I have to say I am bursting with pride and enthusiasm as to how professional the NHS clinical trial experience is."

For more information and to sign up to the trial, visit: https://www.panoramictrial.org/