I love a clinical trial. Sign me the eff up. That being said, as you mention, there are some issues with the speed of trials. And in particular, the demographic spread that volunteers for clinical trials in the US is a problem because it’s typically a monolith: white women, college educated, generally healthy, ages 18-35 IIRC. Proportional representation is hard to find, and distrust in public health is (for good historical reasons) low in minority populations. Pulling in a wider swath of people isn’t possible, and researchers are missing massive chunks of data from which trust could be built.
I love a clinical trial. Sign me the eff up. That being said, as you mention, there are some issues with the speed of trials. And in particular, the demographic spread that volunteers for clinical trials in the US is a problem because it’s typically a monolith: white women, college educated, generally healthy, ages 18-35 IIRC. Proportional representation is hard to find, and distrust in public health is (for good historical reasons) low in minority populations. Pulling in a wider swath of people isn’t possible, and researchers are missing massive chunks of data from which trust could be built.