Peter Doshi: Will covid-19 vaccines save lives? Current trials aren’t designed to tell us, in: BMJ 2020;371:m4037 (21 October 2020).
Publicly accepted criteria for a vaccine are a) reduction of hospital admissions and mortality, b) stopping transmission and c) safety of the vaccine or its side effects. In his report, Peter Doshi asks what it means when a vaccine is declared effective. He concludes that current vaccine studies are not designed to prove the criteria for a vaccine that is accepted by the public.
Link to the article on the website of the British Medical Journal TheBMJ