I imagine at some point, after earnestly trying to help the American people with real science, these people get tired of working thankless jobs where they're up against monstrous bureaucracy and just want to do something that benefits themselves and their families. Sadly, and in part because our society rarely rewards beneficial work the way it does exploitation, these people find the path of least resistance to be this kind of journey.
I can definitely imagine it. It becomes so much easier to not worry about it when you have a comfortable pillow made out of lots and lots of money to rest your head on.
Also interesting that there can be a giant asshole running a federal agency into the ground and I've never heard of him until now. Gives some scale to the problem. I also wonder what else is going on in government that falls below the widely reportable threshold.
It's really weird how many in HN such as you don't like Vinay Prasad.
He is 100% data driven. He has no ideology behind any of his beliefs or decisions, it's all 100% data driven. He should be worshipped by HN but instead he is vilified because many people on HN are the ones motivated by ideology or politics.
The decision to block Moderna's application was simple, they were comparing their results against a lower-dosage flu shot which no one in that age range (65+) takes.
Moderna agreed to add a comparison for the higher dose for older patients and then the application was allowed through. Why is this bad?
The media framed it as if the FDA backtracked but that's a complete lie, Moderna modified their application because Prasad looked at the study and rejected it because it was purposefully giving itself easier goal posts. He did EXACTLY what we want, which is don't make it easier for drug companies to give us bullshit, and to make sure that the drugs are doing what they say they are.
Note that Prasad didn't reject their application: he prevented Moderna from even applying. Prasad overrode a phalanx of FDA career scientists who had studied and approved Moderna's study approach and were ready to review it. He did so suddenly and without warning: the FDA up to that point had not raised any concerns about Moderna's trial protocol. He didn't cite any safety or efficacy issues.
This wasn't the only time he stepped in and overrode experts with seemingly no justification. Just the most prominent example.
(For some reason I am being blocked from replying with my original account which is BS. Nothing I said was inflammatory or rude unless HN mods believe in groupthink.)
Yes, the treatment doesn't work and the studies show as much. But because people with Huntington's are desperate for any sort of treatment (rightfully so, it's a horrible disease), they don't want anyone to impede this therapy.
Uniquer is selling a so-called treatment to desperate patients looking for even a minuscule probability of a treatment and Prasad demanded that there be more evidence before the therapy gets more approval.
Unique's therapy consists of neurosurgery and injecting gene therapy deep into the brain. They claim that it slowed the disease but the same therapy compared to placebo had no better results.
Prasad was gain completely data driven, but to whoever just reads the news, they somehow believe that Prasad is against science which is complete bullshit. Everything you read about the therapy is that it doesn't work, and shouldn't be approved. He is PROTECTING us from bad drugs and therapy based on DATA.
He's the opposite of data driven. Moderna did in fact include several studies together encompassing over 40 thousand patients over a diverse demographic group. In fact, they designed the study program only after the approval of the FDA was already given for it. It's a perfectly normal drug trial. This guy wanted his name in headlines and so he decided to just go ahead with 'vaccine bad' against the will of literally every expert the FDA employs to make these recommendations.
This guy got fired for a good reason - he's an idiot.