Some helpful information on vaccine trials, etc.
The people on This Week in Virology have mentioned challenge trials in passing in the podcasts I have watched/heard. They've probably discussed them more thoroughly at some time in the past, but that's many hours of videos to look through.
The TWIV people point out in passing that having young, healthy people test the vaccine does not show how well it works in older or less healthy people. I'm guessing there probably will not be any way to avoid that uncertainty. The Moderna phase III trial, for instance, is restricted to people 18-55 with good health. On the other hand, that certainly is a more representative sample than what's pictured for challenge trials in the Vox video.
The TWIV folks are quite interested in getting rapid, low cost testing implemented. Theoretically, radically thorough testing could be as effective as vaccines especially given that the FDA is willing to approve vaccines that are only 50% effective. Testing would also avoid the risks of challenge trials (and placebo controlled tests). Of course, radically thorough testing will never happen in the US, butt-heads that we are, but maybe cheap, daily tests with results in minutes could protect maybe 50% of the US population all or most of time? I'm just speculating with the last comment, but the interest in these kinds of tests arises from respected researchers.
Yes, if we tested as thoroughly as Michael Mina wishes we would, we would have no one on which to test vaccines. Transmission would stop. Mina does advocate that daily, rapid tests should be as high a priority as any vaccine.
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