Key Facts

• The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) plans to introduce placebo trials for all new vaccines.
• This new plan is considered a big change from how vaccines have been tested in the past.
• While some details are still unclear, updated COVID-19 shots might be included in the new testing method.
• Health experts are worried that this might make it slower for people to get vaccines.
• The department says they are doing this to provide clear and open information about vaccines.
• All new versions of vaccines currently go through placebo trials. In these trials, a group of people receive the vaccine and another group receive a placebo or fake treatment.
• Some experts find the new plan problematic, as it could be against ethical guidelines to withhold a shot known to be safe from a specific group.
• Updates to existing vaccines might be considered like new products and would require extra testing.
• Experts argue that making companies do placebo tests for simple upgrades of existing vaccines could be expensive and discourage them from developing improved versions.