Thread by @mark_toshner

More on vaccines. I'm going to get boring and geeky on this (no apologies) on the 10 year thing. Vaccines "normally take 10 years". This is being use as a reason to be fearful (ie rushed job). I'm a clinical trials doc. I can tell you most of that time is spent doing...1/n

.... nothing. It's spent submitting funding requests, then resubmitting them, then waiting, then submitting them somewhere else, then getting the money but the company changes it's mind or focus, then renegotiating then submitting ethics, then waiting for regulators...2/n

...then having problems with recruitment and having to open other sites, then dealing with more regulatory issues, then finally when you eventually get to the end of all of this you might have a therapy...3/n

... or not. At this point it may not be deemed profitable or any number of other obstacles.

However we have collectively now shown that with money no object, some clever and highly motivated people, an unlimited pool of altruistic volunteers and sensible regulators...4/n

That we can do amazing things (necessity being the mother etc). These trials have been nothing short of miraculous, revolutionary but in the context perhaps it is not surprising given our ability to innovate when we REALLY need to...5/n

and we really needed to. Safety hasn't been compromised. 100s of thousands of great people volunteered for experimental vaccines. The world watched closely. The press reported every serious adverse event. There have so far been a handful. A triumph of good people/good process.

I am confident that when regulators and scientists pour over the safety data (and we will because we are a bit that way inclined) that vaccines will only be used if we are confident that the risk is definitively outweighed by benefit. This should give you confidence too.