Clinical Trial Participants

Introduction

After Pfizer and Moderna announced their stunningly high vaccine efficacy rates, talk ensued about immediately unblinding the clinical trials and giving placebo recipients the vaccine. Those talks came with controversy.

Arguments in Favor

On the surface and on a personal level, those arguments make complete sense. People put their safety at risk for the sake of science and should be rewarded for their sacrifice.

Arguments Against

Some scientists oppose unblinding trials due to scientific consequence. A WHO Ad-Hoc group co-authored an article relating to this subject and argued that until a vaccine is fully approved and mass vaccination efforts are underway, the trials should remain blind. As they see it, if trials are unblinded, scientists will not be able to study long-term safety and efficacy data without continued double-blind trials. Lack of data would lead to bad analysis, decreased public confidence, and an inability to determine which types of vaccine (i.e., one that’s more effective but two doses and complicated to roll out vs one that’s less effective but similar) are more feasible for certain areas and populations (WHO Ad-Hoc Health Group).

My Take on a Solution

Clinical trial participants should absolutely not be prioritized for COVID vaccinations until long-term safety and efficacy data is collected. Mass vaccinations should be underway by the summer, which is not an inordinately long amount of time to wait for the trials to be unblinded and placebo-recipients to get a shot.