The FDA advisory committee voted 17 to 4 Thursday in favor of recommending the experimental vaccine for use in people ages 16 and up. In addition, the vaccine was almost equally effective for Latinos (94.5%) and non-Latinos (94.7%), and it was 100% effective among the Black study participants. Well over half of the study participants who got the vaccine experienced short-term pain at the injection site. “No one cares about preventing a sore throat,” said New Haven, Conn., attorney Sheldon Toubman, a consumer representative on the FDA panel. FDA experts have asked committee members to help them figure out how to keep the trial going as study participants abandon their roles as guinea pigs and demand the vaccine.

Source: Los Angeles Times December 11, 2020 04:03 UTC