Placebo-Controlled Trials: What Counts for FDA Approval? | Aaron Siri

Donate: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/slobodnipoI In this highlight, Aaron Siri reacts to a claim discussed at a Senate hearing organized by Senator Ron Johnson: that there are hundreds of placebo-controlled clinical trials (even “600+”) proving the safety and effectiveness of routine childhood vaccines. Siri argues the headline number is misleading, and explains why: He says the list was assembled via crowdsourcing, not by reviewing the FDA’s approval basis for each routine childhood vaccine. He claims many entries have nothing to do with U.S. routine pediatric vaccines, and that a large portion either aren’t in children or use “placebos” that are actually adjuvants or other vaccines. He maintains that when you narrow the question to what trials were actually relied upon for approval and routine use, the “pile of evidence” shrinks dramatically. His core point: if someone wants to claim a specific pediatric vaccine is safe, the evidence should match that product, that formulation, that population, and ideally be properly placebo-controlled — not a broad, mixed list of unrelated studies. Full epizode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJTy3oXCzHShsVuJ-zfiGnx96nuR-BNWB WEB: https://slobodnipodcast.hr/2026/01/18/aaron-siri-od-vjere-u-cjepiva-do-papira-koji-se-mora-pokazati-na-sudu/