Is this different from having an RCT, where the experimental group receives the vaccine, and the control receives... a placebo?
I'm probably missing something here.
gus_massa · 17h ago
Note that when there is already a known medicine for the illness, the control group get's the standard treatment, not just a "sugar pill". (I'm not sure if they are proposing this.)
zzzeek · 1d ago
that's exactly what it says, why do you think you're missing something?
> Vaccines that target new infectious agents are often tested using the placebo method, but for well-known and researched diseases, health experts say using a placebo poses ethical issues because the group receiving it will not know if they are actually protected against the illness.
...
> Peter Lurie, a former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official, told the BBC, “It’s hard to tell exactly what is being proposed.”
> “But, broadly, if they mean that every modification to an existing vaccine would require a new placebo-controlled trial, they are treading in ethically dubious territory and likely to deny Americans life-saving vaccines at some point.”
So grandstanding without nuance. It's a clear pattern with this US admin.
unsupp0rted · 1d ago
> health experts say using a placebo poses ethical issues because the group receiving it will not know if they are actually protected against the illness.
There's also the ethical issue of giving a bunch of people an intervention that doesn't do anything, other than create various side-effects.
Obviously if you're tweaking strains in the annual flu vaccine there's no need to go back to the drawing board. Just tweak and inject.
But if you're testing a new vaccine technology, it would be nice to know it's more effective than salty water.
I'm probably missing something here.
> Vaccines that target new infectious agents are often tested using the placebo method, but for well-known and researched diseases, health experts say using a placebo poses ethical issues because the group receiving it will not know if they are actually protected against the illness.
...
> Peter Lurie, a former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official, told the BBC, “It’s hard to tell exactly what is being proposed.”
> “But, broadly, if they mean that every modification to an existing vaccine would require a new placebo-controlled trial, they are treading in ethically dubious territory and likely to deny Americans life-saving vaccines at some point.”
So grandstanding without nuance. It's a clear pattern with this US admin.
There's also the ethical issue of giving a bunch of people an intervention that doesn't do anything, other than create various side-effects.
Obviously if you're tweaking strains in the annual flu vaccine there's no need to go back to the drawing board. Just tweak and inject.
But if you're testing a new vaccine technology, it would be nice to know it's more effective than salty water.