Blurring Lines: Between Vaccine Urgency in a Pandemic and Research and Regulation Ethics

Ten days after it rolled out two vaccines in mid-January, one of which was mired in controversy, India has vaccinated more than 2.3 million people. The country, one of the world’s largest vaccine suppliers, and battling the second highest number of Covid-19 infections in the world, with more than 10 million cases[i], rolled out one the biggest immunization programs against the disease on 16 January. In doing so, it has inadvertently added to the growing number of niggling questions over blurring of lines between the urgency of a vaccine during a pandemic and the need to conform to clinical research and regulatory protocols without taking short-cuts.   The Covid-19 pandemic has brought to the fore the remarkable progress of vaccine science that has, in less than year, turned out 236 candidate vaccines so far, 63 of which are in clinical phase and 173 in pre-clinical phase.[ii] International and national health agencies responded with alacrity to the pandemic to ensure speedy vaccine research and trials against a new infection.

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https://yoursay.plos.org/2021/02/01/blurring-lines-between-vaccine-urgency-in-a-pandemic-and-research-and-regulation-ethics/