Re:Poll: Will you take the Covid vaccine?
by bondarchuk on Friday December 11, 2020 @05:15PM
(#25392083)
So what is the reason given for it being unethical? Of course I realize there is a tradeoff involved in delaying the rollout of a vaccine but I don't see how that is related to the way vaccines are made, specifically.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Poll: Will you take the Covid vaccine?
by RobertRoberts on Friday December 11, 2020 @05:20PM
(#25392167)
To truly prove the efficacy of a vaccine you would have to intentionally give a test subject the virus to see if the vaccine actually works.
It's not been done once by modern western medicine because it would be unethical by modern medical practices to intentionally infect a person.
What, why would you need to do that? That's not how preventive medicine is tested.
Please explain how would your proposal be any more valid than a proper controlled study where you do the treatment on portion of your participants and wait how it works out for them.
Re:Poll: Will you take the Covid vaccine?
by crusso on Friday December 11, 2020 @05:30PM
(#25392334)
Efficacy is still tested with vaccines because there is a statistical expectation of contracting a given disease.
If you give 40,000 people a random mix of placebo and vaccines and then monitor whether or not they contract the target disease, you get an indication of efficacy by comparing the vaccinated group to the placebo group.