[astrophysician]

> This isn't even about stopping the trial early - this is about approving it conditionally before the trial is done and then waiting for the trial to end to really approve it

I see -- yea totally agree, I thought they were committing to a rigid timetable or something but that's not what's happening here as you say.

[vikramkr]

Yeah - its some unprecedented stuff for a vaccibe. One important thing to remember is that its impossible to test two important factors for vaccines in a short trial - long term side effects and durability of the immunity. I mean, it's not physically impossible. You could take a few hundred participants, vaccinate them, put them on a ship going at some percentage the speed of light, and then see if they have any side effects and do a challenge study to see if they're still immune. Short of playing with the fabric of space time (and ethics) - you're not really getting that data from any of these trials, which is why as I mentioned even with completed trials this timeline js unprecedentedly short.