You Keep Asking for a Randomized Controlled Trial: I Don’t Believe It Means What You Think It Means
Never go against an epidemiologist when vaccines are on the line!
The other day, I had a heated discussion about vaccines with a family member. This particular “cousin” has not heard of a conspiracy theory he didn’t like. For some time now, he has been anti-vaccine, and loves to be “just asking questions” whenever I’m in town. He dropped out of high school because of low science and mathematics grades, barely earning a GED. But he still likes to tell me that he knows more than I do since he has “done (his) own research.”
This particular argument was about vaccine safety. “Did you know,” he said, “no vaccine has been tested with a double-blind randomized clinical trial?” And then he parroted the usual anti-vaccine lies about an apparent “lack” of safety studies for the currently licensed vaccines. After a deep sigh, I asked him to explain randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to me. To save him some embarrassment, I won’t repeat to you what he said. Suffice it to say he was wrong.
