Moderna and Merck shrug at 42% melanoma win, mourn break room kettle
The mRNA vaccine trial from Moderna and Merck ended as the models said it would, and the fourth-floor printer did not.
Moderna and Merck released the full results of their melanoma vaccine trial on Sunday. The vaccine cut death and recurrence by 42%. The team spent most of the day on the printer.
The printer sits on the fourth floor. A printer is a machine that puts words on paper. It jammed on page nine of the results, and nobody could find the lever.
The vaccine itself did what the earlier data suggested. It is built for each patient from their own tumour. That part took about a decade. The lever took most of the afternoon.
One trial statistician spoke to me on the condition I did not name her. She said the 42% was the number everyone expected, and she said it the way you say the bus is on time. Then she lowered her voice. Nine pages had come out. Page nine was half in the tray and half in the machine. She said it was the worst thing she had seen in science.
"We had a control group for the vaccine. We did not have a control group for the printer. We have no idea what would have happened if we had used the one downstairs."
The printer is now working. The vaccine is now moving toward wider approval. The company has not said which of these it will announce first.
Both results have been reported. Only one of them has a p-value. A p-value is how sure you are that it was not luck. For the vaccine it was very small. For the printer nobody checked.
