Sinorpharm Vaccine Test Volunteer In Peru Dies, Chief Researcher: They Received A Placebo Injection

Illustration (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The death of a volunteer in the Phase III trial of the COVID-19 vaccine made in China, Sinopharm in Peru, finally got an update. Organizers, Cayetaho Heredia University, said volunteers did not receive the vaccine, they received a placebo.

"It is important to establish that the volunteer death is not vaccine-related since he received the placebo, and therefore we will report to the relevant regulatory and ethical bodies and maintain the course of this third phase of the study", the university said.

For that, the audience must understand which is the vaccine and which is the placebo. The placebo is usually filled with certain ingredients - not the COVID-19 vaccine - to measure the effectiveness of the vaccine. In a COVID-19 vaccine trial, usually, one group will receive an active placebo, such as meningitis or septicemia vaccine. Meanwhile, the other group has received the real COVID-19 vaccine.

In more detail regarding placebo, we have reviewed at length in the article "The Importance of Knowing the Placebo Content in COVID-19 Vaccine Trials".

The head researcher at Cayetano University Heradia German Malaga also spoke up. The volunteers who died from pneumonia exacerbated by COVID-19 previously had diabetes. Malaga also explained that so far it had used a total of two doses of vaccine or placebo to 12 thousand volunteers.

“It develops without setbacks. These things can happen, COVID-19 is a disease that causes death", he said.

"Our message to the volunteers is to take care of themselves because we don't know if they have a vaccine or a placebo", he added.

The university has even fully assisted the volunteers starting from the care needed to treat the disease. However, a week later the volunteer died.

"This is a painful loss as we extend our condolences to his family", the statement added.

Previously, in December, Peru had temporarily suspended trials of Sinopharm's COVD-19 vaccine. This is because there is a serious incident that happened to a volunteer in the study.