Reply #17: Disagree

[Squeech]

Increasingly, the FDA's imprimatur isn't worth the paper it's faxed on.

How many approved, heavily advertised drugs have been shown to have safety issues recently? Celebrex and Vioxx most recently, but there was also the even more deadly heart valve damage they found in people using the Fen-Phen cocktail to lose weight. And it looks like Phiser suppressed data about observed bad effects of whichever drug they're pushing.

As for efficacy, the FDA will pretty much approve any drug where at least 40% of the test subjects show some improvement. Except that other studies have shown that the placebo effect-- the psychological boost patients get from just the attention of a doctor and his/her claim that the treatment will be effective-- works on about a third of most populations anyway. So our new miracle drugs are the ones that, by design or by luck, seem to work on seven more people out of a hundred than would be indicated by random chance.

Shit, it's just too depressing to think about-- pass the Prozac :shrug: