“Extremely strict” security standards are already applied to the development of vaccines, WHO said on Thursday, questioned on American projects to modify the test method of new vaccines.
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“We are confident in the assessments carried out on vaccines,” said Kate O’Brien, director of the WHO responsible for vaccines, during a press briefing in the UN in Geneva.
“Vaccine safety is subject to extremely strict standards,” she insisted.
She answered a question concerning an article in the daily Washington Post published Thursday, which claims that the American Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.-A militant vaccino-skeptic-wanted to modify the test procedure of certain vaccines and demand that all be subject to placebo tests. A classic method in clinical trials which consists in giving a control group a product without effect, as a physiological solution for example.
The declared objective is to increase safety and transparency, but medical experts warn against perverse effects: limit access to vaccines and undermine confidence in their effectiveness.
Ms. O’Brien stressed that the reference procedure already requires placebo tests during the development of entirely new vaccines against diseases for which there is no vaccination option.
-On the other hand, requesting a placebo test for already existing vaccines, but that is adapted to new strains could be contrary to medical ethics, which prohibits administering a placebo instead “vital vaccines already approved”.
“I think the essential is that the quality of clinical trials and their safety assessments are at the heart of the development of any vaccine,” added the manager.
For her, “it is crucial not to limit the capacity and the possibilities of developing better vaccines”.
The WHO alerted last week to the resurgence of epidemics of diseases that could be avoided thanks to vaccination, such as measles, meningitis and yellow fever, around the world, due to the disinformation and the decline in international aid.
Robert Kennedy Jr. notably defended the false idea that the measles vaccine, mumps and rubella (Ror) would contain “aborted fetus debris”.
“Some of these declarations concerning the ingredients used for the production of the measles and rubella vaccine are inaccurate,” said Dr. O’Brien.
Mme O’Brien has insisted on the importance of vaccines, which have saved more than 150 million lives in the past five decades, according to WHO.
