AIDS Vaccine: Didn't quite work.
AIDS vaccine test halted after shots fail
So, to test an AIDS vaccine they gathered a group of 1503 volunteers. They gave some of the volunteers the vaccine and others a placebo. They then let the volunteers go on their merry way and later tested them to see who had HIV.
"24 of 741 volunteers who got the vaccine in one segment of the trial later become infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In a comparison group of volunteers who got dummy shots, 21 of 762 participants also became infected with HIV."
Who were the volunteers? "The study volunteers were all free of HIV at the start of the experiment. But they were at high risk for getting HIV: most were homosexual men or female sex workers."
The thing I can't grasp is that they knowingly gave some people placebo shots. Also that "they were all repeatedly counseled about how to reduce their risk of HIV infections, including use of condoms". Because if you're trying to find out if a vaccine prevents HIV infections you don't want to tell people other means by which they can prevent HIV infections. That's going to fuck (pardon the pun) with the results of the vaccine test.
3 comments:
My understanding is that they have to give placebos so that they'll have a control group against which they can compare their drug's results, and see if it's any better or worse than remaining untreated. I think this is necessary since they can't know who is using condoms or who is not even exposed to the virus in the first place, so probability has to fill in the gaps that ignorance leaves.
If you want to test migraine medication you gather people with chronic migraines and give some the drug and some a placebo. That makes sense.
If you're testing an HIV vaccine and then instruct people on condom use and then don't directly inject them with HIV yourself...it really seems like a goofy test.
And what would have happened if no one had HIV after the test?
"No people who received the vaccine contracted HIV!"
Were they exposed to it?
"Well, we don't know."
Umm. J. instead of talking I am just going to say do some more research on AIDS vaccine testing.
PBS did a good doc on it a while back that is worth watching.
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