In the News
In the News
The vaccine trials are based on population samples, commented Susan Ellenberg, PhD. “You have to have a number of cases that’s big enough so you can have confidence in your estimate,” she said.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning can help us fight COVID-19, Jason Moore, PhD, told The Washington Post. But if you study only populations that are primarily Caucasian, that may not apply as well nationally, in a more diverse population, he added.
We can make COVID-19 vaccines rapidly available only if we have rigorous evidence—which is threatened if we allow emerging data from candidate trials to be disclosed in ways that might influence trial design or conduct and potentially bias the results, write Susan Ellenberg, PhD, and colleagues.
Modeling the public health risks associated with evictions, research by Michael Levy, PhD, predicted that a 1 percent eviction rate would raise the incidence of COVID-19 infection by 5 to 10 percent.
Michael Levy, PhD, spoke about the dangers posed by evictions during a pandemic. Larger households are dangerous for infectious disease because you have more people –and more avenues of ingress for the virus.
Susan Ellenberg, PhD, who serves as a member of a DSMB for the Covid-19 vaccine, explained how these independent panels will ensure the safety and efficacy of a vaccine before it reaches the public.
Susan Ellenberg, PhD, said it’s important to keep data and safety monitoring boards anonymous to protect the members from people desperate for treatment: It “would be very hard to tell [a patient], ‘Oh I can’t help you.’ It’s an unreasonable burden.”
A less-than-robust testing and reporting system could skew our understanding of our COVID-19 infections rates. “It’s going to look like your cases are coming down when they’re not,” commented Jeffrey Morris, PhD.
White House influence on the vaccine approval process “is not something we ever had to think about before,” says Susan Ellenberg, PhD. Though there are some valid concerns, she adds, “I’m hopeful that the process will play out in a way that’s driven by the science … this is a story for the ages.”
Nwamaka Eneanya, MD, MPH, says that factoring in a patient’s race can exacerbate health disparities in kidney disease. She advised Black patients to ask, If I am unable to receive certain specialty referrals or treatments, are there alternative measurements of kidney function that can be used that do not include race?
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