Earlier in the week it was announced that following an unusual illness arising in one of 30,000 people who have so far taken the Oxford vaccine trial there would be a pause as this was investigated. 

MHRA (the UK’s equivalent to the FDA), the Pharma company, Oxford, and the Independent safety committee have all concluded that when you do a large trial like this it is to be expected by chance that certain events will happen without them being linked to the treatment. And as such the trial will now resume recruitment.

This event is a very typical event in a large randomised clinical trial. It is why it is SO important to do such trials properly and not rush any intervention into broad use before we know if it is both safe and efficacious. 

This episode should be reassuring to us that the trials being run by the big Pharma companies into vaccines at the moment are following all normal safety procedures and are designed to keep us all safe and have a clear idea of what the risk benefit balance is for these vaccines when they are made available to the broader public.

More Information: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54132066