Coronavirus vaccine-makers keep safety details quiet, alarming scientists

WASHINGTON - The morning after the world learned that a closely watched clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine had been halted last week over safety concerns, the company's chief executive disclosed that a person given the vaccine had experienced serious neurological symptoms.

It is standard for drug companies to withhold details of clinical trials until after they are completed, tenaciously guarding their intellectual property and competitive edge. But these are extraordinary times, and now there is a growing outcry among independent scientists and public health experts who are pushing the companies to be far more open with the public in the midst of a pandemic that has killed more than 193,000 people in the United States.

Last week, nine pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca and Pfizer, pledged to"stand with science" and rigorously vet any vaccine for the coronavirus - an unusual pact among competitors. But the researchers said that missing from the joint statement was a promise to share more critical details about their research with the public and the scientific community.

Public confidence in the drug companies' findings and federal regulators' rigour will be critical in persuading Americans to get vaccinated. A growing number of people are sceptical. A poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation last week found that nearly two-thirds of Americans - 62 per cent - are worried that the Food and Drug Administration will rush to approve a coronavirus vaccine without making sure it is safe and effective, under political pressure from Trump.

A Pfizer spokeswoman, Amy Rose, said,"We are not going to speak to timing or specifics of any interim analyses." A spokeswoman for AstraZeneca, Michele Meixell, said that while trial sponsors were required to notify the doctors operating clinical trial sites if an"unexplained event" occurred,"it is not common practice for those pauses to be communicated beyond the clinical community involved in a trial - including the media - in order to protect the privacy of individual participants and maintain the integrity of the trial.

Source: News Formal (newsformal.com)

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