[wahern]

Speaking of apprehensive populations, there's another concern on the mind of health authorities--managing the next pandemic. Say a vaccine has VADE or similar ill effects on some small but substantial part of the population. Even if the overall benefit in harm reduction is clearly superior, you may end up destroying trust. Even if your regulatory authorities are cold, calculating, utilitarian, econometric philosopher-kings, the population is not. The next pandemic might be worse, or social trust might continue to tank. Maximizing the long-term utility function might require a level of risk averseness that seems irrational in the present.

[Robotbeat]

That's why you start out with early, large-n testing so you have a long baseline of good quality data. With volunteers, not the general public.

[creato]

Isn't this exactly what happened?