Scientists question ‘strange’ data in Russian coronavirus vaccine trial after 'unlikely' patterns
In an open letter to the editor of The Lancet medical journal, in which Russia's Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology published early-stage trial results of its coronavirus vaccine last Friday, a group of scientists said the data was incomplete and had shown some "unlikely patterns", showed that groups of participants had reported identical antibody levels at different points in the study. There are 27 signatories of the letter so far — predominantly scientists based in Europe but also including several in the U.S. and Asia.
"There are several data patterns which appear repeatedly for the reported experiments. On the ground of simple probabilistic evaluations the fact of observing so many data points preserved among different experiments is highly unlikely."
The scientists were also concerned at the lack of original numerical data presented in The Lancet, saying that "no conclusions can be definitively drawn on the reliability of the data presented, especially regarding the apparent duplications detected."
"While potentially of great interest, the research described in the article published by Lancet presents several different points of concern," said Enrico Bucci, a professor at Temple University. Bucci was also one of the original authors and signatories of the open letter to the editor of The Lancet.
Explaining his and his fellow signatories' concerns, Bucci said that "as a group of scientists, we think that the data published are far from complete."
