Placebos Used in Vaccine Trials Do Not Please Everyone

Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 20:24:05 +0000

Against what does a vaccine need to be tested in the context of a clinical trial? The answer that pops immediately to mind is “a placebo.” In the medical sciences, things get compared to placebos to see if they have inherent potency or if it’s all about the theatre and natural circumstances surrounding them. And because placebos are frequently thought of as sugar pills and saline injections, it’s understandable that some people look at vaccine trials and are puzzled as to why, in specific cases, the experimental vaccine was not compared to an injection of a saline solution.