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I think there's a great deal of misunderstanding about what the processes that go into vaccine trials are. I've seen people talk about all this long-term post-t

by Exmoor 6y ago

I think there's a great deal of misunderstanding about what the processes that go into vaccine trials are. I've seen people talk about all this long-term post-trial monitoring that is getting skipped and then have people who've actually run studies comment and say that's not something they've ever done. Honestly, people skipping the vaccine don't really "matter" in the near term. We have more than enough people willing to get the vaccine for many, many months, so if people want to risk reaching immunity the hard way that's their choice.

petertodd 6y ago
> actually run studies comment and say that's not something they've ever done. I mean, if that's true, that's really disappointing. Though I find it hard to believe, as I've seen examples of medical papers written from long-term post-vax surveillance. For instance this one from the WHO, finding that they could prevent the deaths of about 500,000 more young girls per year in Africa alone by using a different, more effective, measles vaccine: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4052142/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4052142/ I particularly like that example as it shows what's at stake: literally millions of lives are saved by vaccinations. Screwing up that with hasty approvals, and misleading the public about how much safety data we have, could lead to literally millions of additional deaths in the future if vaccination rates go down. Health authorities should be thinking about the long term, not just getting through the covid crisis.