Another vaccine question????

Question

I read a news article this morning that talked about a clinical study Glaxo is engaged in Argentina, as well as a few other Latin American countries. Argentina is investigating immoral/unethical practices b/c many children have died. The vaccine is for pnemonia and something else.

One of the claims is that Glaxo used immoral recruiting practices b/c many of the families were illiterate and couldn't read the releases they signed to have their babies vaccinated.

Does anyone else find it strange or suspect that they would run these trials in a country w/ such high illiteracy rates? or am I just beign a consipiracy theorist???

Answer 1

I'd lean toward the conspiracy-theorist answer, but would be interested in seeing how the facts and the data sort out.  Not being able to read the releases doesn't mean that the release forms weren't explained clearly verbally, or that they didn't agree to them.

Depending on the actual immunogen, it may not be strange at all. With effective vaccines against S. pneumoniae already in place in the U.S., it might be hard to find unvaccinated babies to study.