There is an ethical consideration beyond the pure science. These people volunteered to participate in clinical trials very early in the process of introducing the vaccines.
To deny the vaccine to the placebo control group just because they had been randomly selected to receive a placebo, and even keeping them in the dark regarding the fact that they had received a placebo, once those initial trials had been completed would have been morally bankrupt from an ethical perspective.
Besides there is a "control group" in place at this point anyway, making placebo administration unnecessary in the ongoing study of the progression of Covid.
Recommended reading: "Arrowsmith" by Sinclair Lewis. While fiction, it deals head on with the moral conflict involved when prioritizing science for science sake over ethical considerations.
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