[Minutes, Advisory Committee to the Director GP-160 Meeting (1992: Bethesda, Maryland)]

194

1 which takes it out of the realm of the strict, cold,
2 rational decision. And I think that's where we are
3 now because we're injecting into the equation the very
4 special situation that involves access and other
5 things.
6 But from a purely scientific standpoint,
7 you're perfectly correct. The ordering of priorities
8 proceeds in the way that you've just described.
9 Fred?
10 DR. ROBBINS: Well, I was going to say
11 somewhat the same thing. AIDS is not quite the same
12 as measles. I think that one question that I have to
13 ask is: If we wait, are we going to learn anything
14 more that will be useful; that is, wait a reasonable
15 length of time? I haven't heard that we will learn a
16 great deal more that would add to the information that
17 would allow me to make a decision.
18 Now, I've dealt with vaccines. I've not
19 dealt with AIDS vaccines. Many of the questions and
20 many of the things we've talked about are standard in
21 any trial. But AIDS does present a peculiar problem.
22 The issue of surrogates, every vaccine we
NEAL R. GROSS
COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRISERS
1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE, N.W.
[phone] WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005 [phone]