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Vaccine Trial Participants Randomized to Placebo Should Get Vaccine Now
Trying to preserve the integrity of the trial is a fool’s errand.
Jason Santosuosso has been in biotech for decades. He has founded and sold companies in that space. So he knew what he was getting into when he volunteered to be part of Pfizer’s phase 3 coronavirus vaccine trial.
“At that point I was like, well, you know, I’m really happy to do this more for my family than for anybody I wanted to basically be able to get into the trial so that I could tell them and encourage people to get it, because I knew a lot of people that were afraid of this vaccine.”
So he enrolled. He went to his local medical center and spent hours in the initial visit doing consent, filling out paperwork, and finally — getting that first shot. He had multiple visits as a study participant. Multiple blood draws, nasal swabs. He had to complete an e-diary about his symptoms. It’s onerous. But he figured it was worth it. Yes, because he was contributing to science but also because there was a sense, according to him, that the placebo group would get priority for the vaccine.
