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HHS plans to require placebo-controlled trials for vaccines. Officials cited the need for better data but critics said there are health risks.
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The U.S. Health and Human Services Department plans to change the way new vaccines are tested
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That's according to an HHS spokesperson who spoke to the Washington Post
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The new shift would require vaccines to undergo placebo testing. This means half of the test group would receive the vaccine and the other half a different
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substance, such as a saline shot, the paper reports. All new vaccines will undergo safety
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testing in placebo-controlled trials prior to licensure, a radical departure from past practices
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the HHS spokesperson told the paper. The government said the flu vaccine testing would
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not change over to the new way because it's been tested tried and true the same way for 80 years
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However, it's unclear which vaccines would be tested using the placebo. In the middle of the
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COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine companies were testing their COVID-19 vaccines using the placebo method
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Except for the COVID vaccine none of the vaccines on the CDC childhood recommended schedule was tested against an inner placebo meaning we know very little about the actual risk profiles of these products
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the HHS said in its statement. However, some doctors and health professionals say
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the new testing is unnecessary and will leave vulnerable people at risk of preventable diseases
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You're watching the gradual dissolution of the vaccine infrastructure in this country
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The goal is to make vaccines less available and less affordable, Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told The Post
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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made comments before, criticizing how vaccines are tested
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I've always said during my campaign and every public statement I've made, I'm not going to take people's vaccines away from them
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What I'm going to do is make sure that we have good science so people can make an informed choice
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For Shade Arrow News, I'm Lauren Keenan. For more on this story, download the Shade Arrow News app or visit san.com
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