vaccine trials

A paper published by the American Medical Association's Virtual Mentor is concerned that current enrollment in vaccine trials is extremely low.

The proposed solution?

Creating a federal law that would force each individual to make a "mandated choice" to participate in vaccine trials.

Such a law would give drug companies a more or less guaranteed supply of human guinea pigs.

According to the featured paper:

  "... The lack of animal models that can reliably predict vaccine efficacy means that development still unavoidably relies on testing of novel vaccines in healthy individuals...

 In recent decades there has been a distressing decline in the numbers of healthy volunteers who participate in clinical trials, a decline that has the potential to become a key rate-limiting factor in vaccine development.

 ... The modest financial remuneration commonly provided often means that students and the unemployed make up the bulk of volunteers.

 As a result, the risks of developing a health intervention that would benefit the whole population are carried disproportionately by some of society's most poor and vulnerable.

 This is a situation few would judge to be fair or ethical. Compulsory involvement in vaccine studies is one alternative solution that is not as outlandish as it might seem on first consideration.

 Many societies already mandate that citizens undertake activities for the good of society; in several European countries registration for organ-donation has switched from "opt-in" (the current U.S. system) to "opt-out" systems... and most societies expect citizens to undertake jury service when called upon... 

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