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EXPLAINER: Should vaccine volunteers now get the real thing?

Virus Outbreak Vaccine Testing
Ted S. Warren/AP
FILE - In this March 16, 2020 file photo, a pharmacist gives Jennifer Haller, left, the first shot in the first-stage safety study clinical trial of a potential vaccine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle. Tens of thousands of Americans have volunteered to test COVID-19 vaccines, but only about half of them got the real thing. Now, with the first vaccine rollouts and a surge in coronavirus infections, experts are debating what to do about the half that got a dummy shot. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Virus Outbreak Vaccine Testing
Posted at 8:41 AM, Jan 01, 2021
and last updated 2021-01-01 08:41:57-05

Health experts are debating what to tell study volunteers who got a dummy shot instead of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Should they be offered the real thing now?

Others warn that giving them that option could hurt the long-term results of the studies.

About half of study participants got two doses of an experimental vaccine, the others got dummy shots of salt water for comparison.

The studies for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were intended to last two years.

But with the ongoing epidemic, the companies are considering options for those who didn't get the vaccine in the studies.

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