Coronavirus Slowdown In Europe Complicates Clinical Trials

The decline in daily new COVID-19 infections to single and double digits in Europe is leading to new complications. Switzerland’s NZZ (Neue Zurcher Zeiting) reports that the slowdown in COVID-19 infections in Germany, Switzerland and neighboring countries is complicating the testing for effective drugs and therapeutic approaches. Declining new infections mean too few affected patients from which to recruit volunteers for clinical trials. The lack of infections is also complicating clinical trials of vaccines. Vaccination studies face the dilemma that vaccinated subjects have a lesser opportunity to come in touch with the virus in their daily lives. These complications suggest that the clinical trials of therapies and vaccines will have to move off shore to poor countries that are in earlier phases of the coronavirus