Long-Term Studies Of COVID-19 Vaccines Hurt By Placebo Recipients Getting Immunized
From an NPR article in February
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/02/19/969143015/long-term-studies-of-covid-19-vaccines-hurt-by-placebo-recipients-getting-immuni
RICHARD HARRIS
February 19, 2021 5:00 AM ET
"Tens of thousands of people who volunteered to be in studies of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are still participating in follow-up research. But some key questions won't be easily answered, because many people who had been in the placebo group have now opted to take the vaccine.
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Mott was one of about 650 volunteers who took the experimental Moderna vaccine at a company called Johnson County Clinical Trials in Lenexa, Kan. Dr. Carlos Fierro, who runs the study there, says every participant was called back after the Food and Drug Administration authorized the vaccine.
"During that visit we discussed the options, which included staying in the study without the vaccine," he says, "and amazingly there were people — a couple of people — who chose that."
He suspects those individuals got spooked by rumors about the vaccine. But everybody else who had the placebo shot went ahead and got the actual vaccine. So now Fierro has essentially no comparison group left for the ongoing study.
"It's a loss from a scientific standpoint, but given the circumstances I think it's the right thing to do," he says.
People signing up for these studies were not promised special treatment, but once the FDA authorized the vaccines, their developers decided to offer the shots.
Dr. Steven Goodman, a clinical trials specialist at Stanford University, says losing those control groups makes it more difficult to answer some important questions about COVID-19 vaccines.
"We don't know how long protections lasts," he says. "We don't know efficacy against variants — for which we definitely need a good control arm — and we also don't know if there are any differences in any of these parameters by age or race or infirmity."
Related link: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215792289
= new reply since forum marked as read
They were looking for volunteers for the testing program in Pittsburgh about a year and a half ago. I put my name in because I thought I'd be a good candidate - almost 70 years old, no health issues, not a smoker, and I hadn't been exposed or infected by Covid.
For whatever reason, I wasn't chosen for the program. However if I had been chosen, I still would have wanted to receive the vaccine even if I got the placebo in the test. It only makes sense. Otherwise why would anyone volunteer to be a guinea pig?
