If the statistics warrant it then yes, but for a vaccine, even waiting to finish these trials is an incredibly rushed schedule. This isn't even about stopping the trial early - this is about approving it conditionally before the trial is done and then waiting for the trial to end to really approve it. I don't think the concern is about fabricating phase III data. The concern is that extreme political pressures mean no matter what the interim results say, the FDA may feel inclined to approve the vaccine. Considering that we need healthy people to willingly take these vaccines to end the pandemic, losing that trust in the process would be devastating. People need to believe that the FDA approved it because the evidence shows the vaccine is most likely effective without safety concerns. If they don't, then they won't take it, and if the vaccine then fails phase III, its not clear how you regain that trust as a regulatory agency.
> This isn't even about stopping the trial early - this is about approving it conditionally before the trial is done and then waiting for the trial to end to really approve it
I see -- yea totally agree, I thought they were committing to a rigid timetable or something but that's not what's happening here as you say.
Yeah - its some unprecedented stuff for a vaccibe. One important thing to remember is that its impossible to test two important factors for vaccines in a short trial - long term side effects and durability of the immunity. I mean, it's not physically impossible. You could take a few hundred participants, vaccinate them, put them on a ship going at some percentage the speed of light, and then see if they have any side effects and do a challenge study to see if they're still immune. Short of playing with the fabric of space time (and ethics) - you're not really getting that data from any of these trials, which is why as I mentioned even with completed trials this timeline js unprecedentedly short.
