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Why Emergency COVID Vaccine Approvals Could Pose a Dilemma
If approval comes before clinical trials end, this could complicate the study of vaccines’ long-term effects
Nature,
2020
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In the race to inject COVID-19 vaccines into millions of arms worldwide, scientists wrestle with the ethics of whether to allow a clinical trial’s placebo participants to get a vaccine immediately after it’s approved for emergency use. Some say studying the long-term effects of vaccines, such as their safety and efficacy, could be compromised by doing so. Other researchers insist that the potential for human suffering overrides the possibility of long-term data damage.
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About the Authors
David Cyranoski reports for Nature from Shanghai, China. Additional reporting by Smriti Mallapaty.
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