“The necessity is breaking the law,” said biostatistician Tom Winsellers (KU Leuven) in an interview with our newspaper yesterday. He said, “We will be much better off already conditional approval of all vaccines in the third phase of the trial.” Statistically, he added, “Without a vaccine, 80 percent of your population will be infected sooner or later. A rough estimate of 1 in 150 will die from it. The current vaccines in phase 3 of the study are all safer and have few side effects. I know which option to make.”
Vaccine experts disagree. Immunologist Joeri Aerts (VUB) points out the potential risks of rapid spread. Suppose it turns out that a hastily approved vaccine does not provide adequate protection, or worse, that serious side effects occur in a large proportion of vaccines. Then we are far from home, because all this goes back to the anti-tax mill. ”
Vaccinologist KU Leuven also sees little benefit in getting speedy approval. “It would destroy confidence in the vaccine. You would do more harm than good during the rollout.” Like Arts, he doesn’t think the EMA is working too slowly. “EMA only received the file from AstraZeneca on January 12. The experts had 17 days to thoroughly investigate such a complex file. I think these people are working day and night evaluating this file and others. It could hardly be faster.”
