There are a lot of things I have wanted in life, but being “unblinded” never made it to my short list.
After getting my second shot this past Monday as a volunteer in the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial, I am no closer to knowing if I got the real thing or a placebo than I was when I got my first shot more than a month ago.
Of course, that is the way it s supposed to work. People who take part in medical research often are given placebos, and both they and the health care professionals who conduct the trials are not told or blinded to who got what.