In June, the National Research Council set up an 18-member COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force charged with prioritizing vaccine projects and securing commercially available vaccines in Canada.  The government declared that it was a “deliberate decision … to include individuals who may have a real or perceived … conflict of interest with respect to one or more proposals to be evaluated by the … task force.”  The authors, including Lisa Bero, PhD, find that with Canadian lives on the line, trust has already been jeopardized, and trust in decisions about vaccines is going to be crucial.  Both transparency and independence are needed, and task force chairs and most members should not have conflicts.  Read article>>