Why RFK, Jr.’s placebo testing requirement for vaccine approval will cost lives

The health and human services secretary claimed that no vaccines other than the coronavirus shots had been tested against a placebo, which he vowed to “remedy.” …

These statements are flat-out wrong. Many vaccines are, in fact, tested against placebos. Those that aren’t always have a specific ethical and scientific rationale. Changing existing practice won’t make immunizations safer, but it will delay access and impede disease prevention. … In all cases, including vaccines against measles, rotavirus, shingles, pneumococcus, respiratory syncytial virus and human papilloma virus, a placebo was integral to preapproval trials.

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HHS officials have stated that any update to coronavirus vaccines — including seasonal strain changes — could make them “new” vaccines that require new rounds of placebo testing. The longer the time gap between strain prediction and vaccine distribution, the more likely the vaccines would no longer match the circulating variants. … What better way to sow doubt in vaccines than to slow-walk approval until they are no longer useful?

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