There is an urgent need to find both a treatment and a vaccine to combat Covid-19. For that, we need to perform clinical trials with vaccine candidates to select efficient and safe ones. There is some pressure to curtail such clinical trials in order to have these tools available soon.
Statistics, the science that studies variation and searches and analyzes patterns (or lack thereof) using the most efficient methods of data collection, can be used to help shorten clinical trials based on science and not on other considerations. The ASA, as an institution member of Civil Society, and individual statisticians, are in a position to contribute in this area.
I encourage my colleague statisticians to propose other procedures that can be used toward this end, to develop examples and tutorials with them, and share them with public health researchers. I also encourage public health scientists and practitioners to try these methods out, in their work.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344193195_Some_Statistical_Methods_to_Accelerate_Covid-19_Vaccine_Testing
Thank-you for your time and attention./Jorge.
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Jorge L. Romeu
Emeritus SUNY Faculty
Adjunct Professor, Syracuse U.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jorge_Romeu------------------------------