News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Poll: Will you take the Covid vaccine? by viraptor on Friday December 11, 2020 @05:27PM (#25392278)
Vaccines go through phase 3 testing which is about efficacy. (And some other properties) What do you think is missing from them?
Re:Poll: Will you take the Covid vaccine? by RobertRoberts on Friday December 11, 2020 @05:28PM (#25392289)
None of them intentionally give the live virus to their subjects.
Re:Poll: Will you take the Covid vaccine? by Kliment on Friday December 11, 2020 @05:39PM (#25392468)
Challenge studies get performed on non-human (animal) test subjects (this was done for the Biontech/Pfizer vaccine), and there's a volunteer human challenge study planned in the UK for January. A challenge study is one where you intentionally give a live virus to your subjects.

Arguably, releasing your subjects into an environment full of live virus, such as the United States, is a kind of challenge study, which rapidly delivers efficacy data. This is why approval could happen so much faster than usual for these vaccines.

Re:Poll: Will you take the Covid vaccine? by viraptor on Friday December 11, 2020 @05:33PM (#25392376)
That would speed up the test, sure. But as far as the quality of the results goes, why is that different from the existing test where a large number of vaccinated (real and placebo) subjects gets exposed/infected? It's still testing efficacy.