BLIND TRIAL by Brian Deer (best books to read for beginners TXT) 📗

nothing wrong with Ramirez. The last we heard he’s employed at a 7–Eleven in San Francisco. Frank surmised we needed to lose somebody from the placebo arm of the study to balance the data. So he told him not to come back.”

“That’s ridiculous, and you know it.”

“Exactly right. I agree. On the statistical significance of our cohort, the precaution was quite unnecessary. But Frank doesn’t always listen to what I say.”

“You sicken me.”

“Trudy, there have been three cases of potential concern. And the others are hardly sick at all. A thirty-one-year-old male. Lester something, I believe. A software writer in Boston, Massachusetts, I am given to understand. And a fifty-year-old dentist in central Florida. They are both up and about, doing very much better than Ms. Glinski. They have diagnoses of mild, transient myalgic encephalomyelitis. They’re expected to recover completely.”

“Always knew there was something about you. Ben, call the police.”

The kid didn’t move: cool under fire. Ten out of ten. Hoffman smiled.

Doctorjee moved a leg, making the back seat sag. “Please, let’s not trade unpleasantness. Suffice it to say, my ethical standards are wholly unoccluded on this matter. I have not destroyed our trial. We have an excellent result. Your vaccine is what you always said it would be, a beacon of hope.”

“What, with folks getting sick and you killing them? For God’s sake, you need help. Call the police.”

“Trudy, please. We must accept the product’s profile is not ideal. Of course. But we anticipated imperfection, did we not? Our world is imperfection, is it not? On how many occasions have you indicated yourself that WernerVac wouldn’t be perfect? But, even with this imperfection, at a population level we have the chance to protect life with your invention on a scale that can hardly be countenanced. Nothing has fundamentally changed.”

“What, with murder?”

“Oh, come, come. You really must strive not to see this predicament in such inflammatory language. Ms. Glinski didn’t suffer. Not at all. We performed a kindness.”

“Good god.”

“Trudy, nobody suffers from death. It’s the dying that’s the suffering. And remember, we acted only to protect your discovery, for the public good. It’s in the interests of humanity. And that’s the truth.”

“Really?”

“Ask Mr. Hoffman.”

This wasn’t a lawyer’s moment to intrude.

“Now Trudy, can you sincerely imagine the consequences a year ago if the media heard of Ms. Glinski’s issues?” The sag in the back seat lifted. “An experimental vaccine making the disease worse. That’s what they would have said. Even with a single case. Just one. And how would that have played when she turned up on Fox News?”

“Don’t you talk to me about Fox News.”

“In forty-eight hours, our centers would be empty. Anti-vaccine campaigners would be giving speeches on Tenth Street and waving placards at the gates of every one of our units. Lost to follow-ups would have been ninety-nine percent.”

“If there was only the one, we could have handled it. You didn’t have to do that to the poor woman.”

Doctorjee clapped his hands. “Absolutely. You’re right, I agree with you. We could have handled it. We could. But could they? Could the great unwashed public? Could that babbling phalanx of anti-vax ignorance which parades itself whenever we hold a press briefing? Trudy, what is the history of vaccine scares? They simply wouldn’t have comprehended that one serious adverse event in a trial of nearly twenty-seven thousand is, statistically speaking, nothing.”

“It’s not nothing.”

“Excuse me? For a first-generation product for a life-threatening pandemic infection? Let me tell you, that’s a far superior profile than we’re seeing with InderoMab. You might perhaps stop by on your next visit to the office and see what we’re getting with that.”

“You didn’t have to kill her, for God’s sake.”

“That’s arguable, of course. It’s a view. Yes. A legitimate opinion. But let me say this, tobacco products, including I’d assume your much-loved Dorals, kill nearly half a million Americans every year.”

“A life’s a life.”

“Yes. And there are three hundred and thirty million gods. One genetically disadvantaged Californian is not material in the grand scheme of things.”

“She could have gotten treatment.”

“Correct. Indeed, she could. And isn’t that the point? Haven’t you hit the nail on the head, once again? Couldn’t I have played it straight with Ms. Glinski, and told her what we suspected?”

“Yes, you could.”

“We could. Yes. But not before the license. You see? That would have made your achievements vulnerable, would it not? She would have been aware of our predicament, obviously. And how would we have kept her—and her lawyers—quiet? Every one of our volunteers, and the whole world, would know within days. But from next week—after licensure—any such unfortunates will be treated. They will live with the virus as comfortably as anyone does today.”

“Not when FDA hears about this. Not when you’re in jail.”

Doctorjee sighed. “Of course, you may need a little time to contemplate the options. The company is trying to do the right thing here, I assure you.”

“You’re a psychopath.”

“You’re entitled to that opinion. Of course. But let me point out, psychopaths don’t act from compassion, Trudy. The data still support the imperative to license WernerVac, and we still have a humanitarian duty to see that through to completion. You want me to explain further?”

“I want you to rot in hell.”

“Yes, I can see you’re upset. Believe me when I say I understand. This is bound to be difficult for you. But let’s look at the data, shall we? Could we have some illumination perhaps?”

Ben fumbled around the dash, then opened the driver’s door. The interior light snapped on.

“Now, let’s see.” Doctorjee rooted in his briefcase and produced a draft press release. “Now, of the 26,712, we have 13,308 on the vaccine arm of the study, and the rest on placebo. Yes?”

“Wouldn’t trust one word.”

“It’s all perfectly straightforward, I can assure you. We’re concealing nothing from you. Are we Mr. Hoffman?”

“Huh? Better not be.”

“So that’s one significant case of this enhanced progression, deceptive imprinting, whatever we want to call it, that might make the subject somewhat less advantaged in the event