Cool post, the historical tie in with abortion was especially interesting.
The defense of more stringent FDA approval standards is lacking however, because it only considers Type I errors of approving a dangerous drug. The Type II invisible graveyard of all the people who have suffered and died without medicines that were waiting on approval or not even developed due to the high costs of FDA approval is large. No one gets a presidential award for approving a drug that works.
This tradeoff is difficult to quantify but an attempt could be made. With vaccine approval timelines alone, we know that hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved with faster approval. This already outweighs thalidomide but there are many more examples in both categories.
Illuminating and well-written article bro
Cool post, the historical tie in with abortion was especially interesting.
The defense of more stringent FDA approval standards is lacking however, because it only considers Type I errors of approving a dangerous drug. The Type II invisible graveyard of all the people who have suffered and died without medicines that were waiting on approval or not even developed due to the high costs of FDA approval is large. No one gets a presidential award for approving a drug that works.
This tradeoff is difficult to quantify but an attempt could be made. With vaccine approval timelines alone, we know that hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved with faster approval. This already outweighs thalidomide but there are many more examples in both categories.