AstraZeneca is partnering with the University of Oxford to develop and test a COVID-19 vaccine. | Photo by Paul Ellis / AFP via Getty Images
A big vaccine trial halted this week after a participant experienced serious neurological symptoms. It was one of the first known bumps in the road for the highly touted vaccine candidate, which is being developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.
Hitting pause on a promising vaccine candidate may be jarring, especially during a deadly pandemic. But it’s not unexpected, and it’s exactly the kind of thing that large-scale clinical trials are for. In clinical trials, researchers carefully monitor patients for any kind of bad reactions to the drug or treatment. If something goes wrong, they can pause, investigate, and then keep going once it’s safe to do so.
“You take any group of 30,000 people, and you watch them over the…