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Wait, the FDA's enforcement of a particular standard for drug licensing is *definitely* the bottleneck here. I think you're saying that the FDA's bureaucracy is doing a good job of implementing the regulatory standards we've collectively adopted. Does that sound right?

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and

Put another way: if we had no drug regulatory regime at all, or one based on much looser standards of evidence, I could likely get a Delta booster shot today. So in that sense, the existence of the FDA is a bottleneck, right? That bottleneck might be worth it, of course.

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I think this is the crux: I think that the FDA's balance is bad. On a personal level, it makes me worse off. At a societal level it violates my moral convictions. Given those values, I'm upset because the FDA is, in my view, causing a lot of harm by applying its standard.

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Oh, so we disagree less than I thought! My preferred regulatory regime would indeed create finer grained distinctions and rely more on individuals and their doctors to make treatment decisions.

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Nicholas Schiefer

@nschiefer

Replying to

@voretaq7

I think that sort of thing, applied to the specific case of COVID vaccines, is what a lot of people mean when they blame "the FDA" or "regulations" for COVID-related harms. It's imprecise to an expert's ear, but it's definitely a common shorthand.

10:12 PM · Aug 11, 2021Twitter Web App