everyone knows this is how the scientific method works. I mean is this not what I learned in 7th grade? I think it is.
Everyone knows: Hypothesis -> Experiment -> Collect Data -> Evaluate the Results -> Hypothesis. I learned this in 6th grade science class.
I don't know the details that apply to vaccine studies. I read some Ars articles, and they: give vaccine to some people, not to others, and monitor their conditions. The two hypotheses being tested are: 1) the "intervention" population gets sick less often, and 2) the benefit is greater than the cost.
I think I read somewhere that vaccine studies are large and expensive because the proposed intervention is for everyone, and therefore, the safety data needed is similarly large. Interventions for, say, patients of a specific cancer type are allowed to be small.
