Episode 419: The Case for Challenge Trials

Today’s podcast is about an idea that I’ve come in contact with a couple of times over the past few months. Steve Levitt, coauthor of Freakonomics and a professor at the University of Chicago, had an idea for how we could accelerate the vaccine trial process to save more lives and economic problems. This idea is called the challenge trial, in which people are given the vaccine and then are exposed to the disease to see the true effectiveness of the vaccine more quickly and efficiently. In the podcast, you’ll hear more details about this idea and some thoughts on the pushback. I figured you would like hearing it, given we’re a year into living with this “new normal.” I hope you find it to be a valuable thought to engage in. As always, thanks for listening. It means a lot. Much Love ❤️ and please take care.