A Cautionary Tale of Flawed Design and Public Trust—A Critique of the Covid Vaccine Trials

In their provocative and methodical critique, Jay Bhattacharya the imminent new Director of National Institutes of Health  and Martin Kulldorff, both authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, dismantle the Covid vaccine trials, arguing that they were fundamentally misaligned with public health priorities. Their central claim? The trials were designed to measure short-term reduction in symptomatic infection, rather than answering the critical public health questions: Did they stop viral transmission?  Did the vaccines prevent hospitalization and death? Their analysis draws a sharp contrast between the Covid trials and the 1954 Salk polio vaccine trial, which rigorously measured clinically significant outcomes—the prevention of paralysis and death—across a massive sample size of 400,000 children.

Where the Trials Fell Short