Forbes October 23, 2020
Yesterday a panel of outside experts — formally known as the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee — and laypeople convened to advise the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on how to make the approval process for Covid-19 vaccines safer, more robust, and deserving of public trust. One thing became clear over the course of the seven-hour meeting — that a hastily expedited vaccine might benefit some people, but fail those who need protection most.
The primary objective of the ongoing late-stage vaccine trials, which have involved hundreds of thousands around the world, is to prevent the onset of Covid-19 symptoms in half of everyone vaccinated. What we really need from a vaccine, however, isn’t a broad reduction...