STREETSBORO, Ohio (WJW) – As Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine begins its nationwide rollout, those who helped made this moment possible call it a sign of better days ahead. That includes one man who said he could be one of the first in the country to receive a coronavirus vaccine.

“At the time, I wasn’t working and I figured anything I can personally do to help us get back to some kind of normalcy, I was willing to step up and do,” said John Ruediger a Streetsboro City Council member.

Ruediger said he heard an advertisement on the radio earlier this year calling for participants in Moderna’s clinical trial.

At the time, the pandemic wiped out his business JD Luxury Transportation for several months and the only way to get back to normal he said was to help end the pandemic. He enrolled in the clinical trial without much hesitation. Months later he says he feels great, but still does not know if he received a placebo or the actual vaccine.

“It is a double-blind study which means all the people in the study have no idea if they’ve got the vaccine and then also none of the doctors at the facility know,” said Ruediger.

He enrolled as a paid participant in the vaccine trial underway at Rapid Medical Research in Beachwood. FOX 8 previously featured the company’s clinical trials in September. Back then, a recruitment manager for the company said they were leading the area in the amount of coronavirus vaccine trials they were participating in.

Ruediger said the trial will last for 25 months. He received two shots and reported no serious side effects.

“There’s a lot of misinformation going on the internet right now,” he said. “I hope that everyone takes the word of the FDA. These are professionals. They have dedicated their lives … to get us back to normal.”

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