> I'd sense a massive lawsuit if scientists caught major wind of a guaranteed vaccine and sat on it for the sake of evidence for 5 years and let X-many people get HIV.
This is wrong on so many levels.
First, until you conduct the trials have the evidence there is no guarantee that (a) the vaccine works and (b) that it isn't harmful itself. The idea of a guaranteed vaccine that hasn't been through trials is nonsense as trials are an integral part of such a guarantee.
Second, you can't sue someone for with holding such a drug unless you have some sort of basis in law to have that drug - basically a contract between you and the company. As the drug companies can't legally sell a drug that hasn't passed testing no such contracts exist. While I'm sure you'd like to exert some sort of moral right to the drug (and I'd kind of agree with you), a legal right which could form the basis of a law suit simply isn't there.
Third, why would a company sit on a vaccine for AIDS? Yes a majority of those at risk are in the third world and have no money but there is a market of hundreds of millions who could afford and would pay for a vaccine in the wealthy developed world. It simply makes no sense to suggest that they would do anything of the sort.
This is wrong on so many levels.
First, until you conduct the trials have the evidence there is no guarantee that (a) the vaccine works and (b) that it isn't harmful itself. The idea of a guaranteed vaccine that hasn't been through trials is nonsense as trials are an integral part of such a guarantee.
Second, you can't sue someone for with holding such a drug unless you have some sort of basis in law to have that drug - basically a contract between you and the company. As the drug companies can't legally sell a drug that hasn't passed testing no such contracts exist. While I'm sure you'd like to exert some sort of moral right to the drug (and I'd kind of agree with you), a legal right which could form the basis of a law suit simply isn't there.
Third, why would a company sit on a vaccine for AIDS? Yes a majority of those at risk are in the third world and have no money but there is a market of hundreds of millions who could afford and would pay for a vaccine in the wealthy developed world. It simply makes no sense to suggest that they would do anything of the sort.