We know for a fact (like actual empirical fact) that FDA prevents vast numbers of unsafe and ineffective drugs from reaching the market. This is absolutely indisputable.

So uhhh, maybe we think in reality instead of offloading to metaphor.

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throwaway173738 13 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The whole “let’s paint a general principle with a broad brush over this highly nuanced thing I know nothing about” is a huge problem with discourse in our society.

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throwawaymaths 12 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> We know for a fact (like actual empirical fact) that FDA prevents vast numbers of unsafe and ineffective drugs from reaching the market. This is absolutely indisputable.

we also know for a fact that the FDA lets unsafe and ineffective drugs into the market, especially from overseas, slapped with a label that its safe according to the FDA. if its a crapshoot, what's the point really?

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sorcerer-mar 10 hours ago | parent [-]

The point is that it's nowhere close to a crapshoot.

99.99999% of drugs ever created are unsafe or ineffective.

99%+ of the drugs you will ever encounter in your life are both safe and effective.

That is not a crapshoot. Obviously.

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throwawaymaths 7 hours ago | parent [-]

if you are in doubt, propublica has done a huge expose in the major, deliberate lapses of FDA regulation for foreign manufactured drugs

https://www.propublica.org/article/fda-drug-loophole-sun-pha...

	▲	sorcerer-mar 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		How is that relevant to my point? Despite its failures (however many you want to point out), our regulatory regime converts a pipeline of almost universally ineffective and/or dangerous compounds into a marketplace of almost universally safe and/or effective compounds. This is a fact. Unless you think no one is trying to, would try to, or would deceive themselves into accidentally releasing a dangerous or ineffective compound to consumers?