Opinion: One-size-fits-all placebo rule would slow Bay Area vaccine updates

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is considering a rule that sounds like commonsense rigor: require every new or updated vaccine to run a placebo-controlled trial. The mandate would affect even routine flu strain updates — the yearly tweaks that let Bay Area pharmacists offer the right shot each fall.

The idea might please critics who insist vaccines “aren’t really tested,” but it would do real harm. Across our nine counties in the Bay Area, providers administered about four million flu vaccine doses last year.