3.8

Question 1

why are vaccines and drugs subjected to clinical trials

Answer 1

to establish their safety and effectiveness before being licensed for use

Question 2

what happens in a clinical trial

Answer 2

subjects are divided into groups in a randomised way to reduce bias in the distribution of characteristics such as age and gender

Question 3

what happens in a double blind trial

Answer 3

neither the subject nor the researchers known which group subjects are in to prevent biased interpretations

Question 4

steps of double blind trial

Answer 4

one group of subjects are given the vaccine/drug and the other group is given a placebo control to ensure valid comparisons.

at then end of the trial results form the two groups, which must be a suitable size to reduce the magnitude of experimental error, are compared to determine whether they are any statistically significant differences between the groups