4 ms·

I'm surprised they don't seem to do frequent and regular COVID testing of participants to catch asymptomatic infections. Naively, it would seem worthwhile in or

by ilyagr 6y ago

I'm surprised they don't seem to do frequent and regular COVID testing of participants to catch asymptomatic infections. Naively, it would seem worthwhile in order to predict how well the vaccine would slow down the spread. I guess the reason is that the study is narrowly tailored to vaccine approval requirements?

sjg007 6y ago
It’s a pipe dream. We don’t have enough capacity. People won’t get tested either. This issue would be mute if people wore masks and stayed apart.
- BenjiWiebe 6y ago
  *moot
- ilyagr 6y ago
  More than 300000 people a day get tested for coronavirus in the UK according to [1], and the testing capacity is even greater than that. This is enough to cover study participants. I would imagine that volunteers would also be willing to get tested, though perhaps the worry is that such a requirement might cause more of them to drop out of the study. [1]: https://interactive.news.sky.com/2020/covid-19-coronavirus/tests-uk-barchart/index.html https://interactive.news.sky.com/2020/covid-19-coronavirus/t...
mathw 6y ago
The study is tailored to the standards of vaccine approval, of course it is. They need to prove safety and efficacy, so they design a trial which will allow those factors to be measured. Kind of difficult to prove efficacy if you don't know how many people in your trial were infected with the disease you're trying to vaccinate against though. But do bear in mind as mentioned in other comments this participant was not in the phase 3 trial, and phase 3 is where the immunity given by a vaccine is tested. Phase 1 and phase 2 are much more constrained studies intended to determine if it's safe to give the vaccine to enough people to evaluate immunity.
- ImaCake 6y ago
  Since this is would presumably be testing for efficacy I guess they would have a number of pre-determined "interim analysis" points in the study when X count of people report becoming positive for the coronavirus. If the proportion infected in the treatment vs control is too high (i.e. lots of vaccinated ppl got sick) they will stop the trial and consider the vaccine a failure. If too few get it, they might stop the trial and immediately move to a Phase III study to confirm their result - that is they accelerate the trial to get the treatment out quicker. I am unsure if they will have some lower bound for acceleration for this vaccine, since the downsides might not be apparent for a long time.

by ilyagr 6y ago

sjg007 6y ago

It’s a pipe dream. We don’t have enough capacity. People won’t get tested either. This issue would be mute if people wore masks and stayed apart.

BenjiWiebe 6y ago
*moot
ilyagr 6y ago
More than 300000 people a day get tested for coronavirus in the UK according to [1], and the testing capacity is even greater than that. This is enough to cover study participants. I would imagine that volunteers would also be willing to get tested, though perhaps the worry is that such a requirement might cause more of them to drop out of the study. [1]: https://interactive.news.sky.com/2020/covid-19-coronavirus/tests-uk-barchart/index.html https://interactive.news.sky.com/2020/covid-19-coronavirus/t...

mathw 6y ago

The study is tailored to the standards of vaccine approval, of course it is. They need to prove safety and efficacy, so they design a trial which will allow those factors to be measured. Kind of difficult to prove efficacy if you don't know how many people in your trial were infected with the disease you're trying to vaccinate against though. But do bear in mind as mentioned in other comments this participant was not in the phase 3 trial, and phase 3 is where the immunity given by a vaccine is tested. Phase 1 and phase 2 are much more constrained studies intended to determine if it's safe to give the vaccine to enough people to evaluate immunity.

ImaCake 6y ago
Since this is would presumably be testing for efficacy I guess they would have a number of pre-determined "interim analysis" points in the study when X count of people report becoming positive for the coronavirus. If the proportion infected in the treatment vs control is too high (i.e. lots of vaccinated ppl got sick) they will stop the trial and consider the vaccine a failure. If too few get it, they might stop the trial and immediately move to a Phase III study to confirm their result - that is they accelerate the trial to get the treatment out quicker. I am unsure if they will have some lower bound for acceleration for this vaccine, since the downsides might not be apparent for a long time.