Richard H. Hughes, IV, and Spreeha Choudhury, attorneys in the Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, and Newark offices, respectively, co-authored an article in PharmExec.com, titled “Don’t Fall for the Call of Placebo-Controlled Vaccine Trials.”

Following is an excerpt:

Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., wants Americans to believe that vaccine science is broken. His latest crusade is a demand for more “placebo-controlled trials,” as if vaccine makers have been hiding something by not giving some people sugar water instead of vaccines that have proven to work. It invokes the language of scientific rigor, while ignoring both medical ethics and its fraught history. …

Key Takeaways

  • Placebo-controlled vaccine trials are often unethical, especially for new versions of existing vaccines.
  • Denying people proven medicines in the name of research has a dark legacy in this country.
  • The FDA has its own layer of protection through regulations governing how experimental drugs and vaccines are tested in humans.
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