Via Virginia Postrel — Sidney Wolfe has been put on the committee overseeing drug safety. This is a calamity. Many unseen murders, and needless suffering, will ensue. As she notes:
He’s got the “consumer” slot. Well, I’m a big-time pharmaceutical consumer, and this man does not speak for me.
Fortunately, I’m not (yet) much of a pharmaceutical consumer, but he doesn’t speak for me, either.
“If there were any question, they would take the drug off the market.”
Of course, that standard is applied only to scientific medicine.
At the same time, the Bush Administration has continued to promote “organic” food and “alternative” medicine. In Seattle, every bus carries big ads for Bastyr University, one of the “naturopathic” medical schools now “accredited” by the US government, and “naturopathic physicians” are now covered by many insurance plans.
I predict this Republican War on Medical Science will receive no criticism from the Obama Administration.