Thread by @VincentRK

COVID vaccine approved for military use in China. My guess is that China will have hundreds of millions of doses by August.

China has crushed COVID. They don’t have enough cases to do a Phase III RCT. For their citizens this is the right call. google.com/amp/s/mobile.r….

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Their epidemiology leaders unlike ours have consistently got it right. They did masive testing. Elaborate contact tracing. They controlled COVID. We didn’t. Honesty they don’t need our advice. We have no credibility to advise them

Below is what our CDC acknowledged yesterday
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China has almost no COVID. So they either have to risk unknown efficacy & possible side effects of a vaccine that induces strong immune responses, or be at the mercy of other countries to complete their trials & sell them vaccines for a fortune. They correctly chose the former
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I am sure experts here will urge caution. That’s reasonable. But China is not marketing a vaccine for US citizens. They are making a risk benefit judgment call. Having led >10 RCTs, I know what’s feasible and what isnt. China simply doesn’t have the patients, or time for a RCT
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The same thing is playing out in the Oxford vaccine trial. There aren’t enough patients to do a phase III. But the UK and big Pharma unlike China has the connections to pull off an RCT using patients from other countries. google.com/amp/s/www.cbsn…

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We will have to work for our own vaccine. And I hope we are in the situation that China is in when we are ready for a phase III: Not enough COVID patients to do a phase III RCT. Then we can wax poetic about need for RCTs first before anyone gets a vaccine.

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