While many news organizations breathlessly proclaimed a breakthrough - CBS called it a "big breakthrough" - about the news that aThailand trial showed a small protective effect of an experimental AIDS vaccine, some stories injected needed caveats.
David Brown of the Washington Post reminds readers that "The results were barely significant on statistical grounds." But he went on to write:
Other researchers were less sanguine about the study but did not want to be quoted by name as being skeptical when only a few details of the results have been released.
"I just think it's too early really," said one, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for that reason. "It is in a kind of gray zone, and I think we should really get the data and look at it and see what it all means."
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