Unexpected Adverse Drug Reactions......Who's to Blame?
The latest panic and the most fashionable story on the nightly news this week. Unfortunately it will eventually fade away as it is an unresolvable dilemma. Whenever emotional panic confronts the reality of reasonable risk management, there are no easy answers.
The hard realities are that there are very few easy decisions in the drug business. How do you weigh the suffering of millions against the potential death of a few?
The emotional among us are, even now, in pious tones, saying "the choice is obvious....lives are sacred".
This simplistic mindset is obviously untenable at the outset, as such a viewpoint would immediately shut down such major sectors as commercial air travel and the automobile industry, while both have major beneficial aspects they also carry a major liability in adverse side effects.lol
The final outcome of the latest FDA turn on the media hotseat, will be a few studies and a great deal of political posturing by those willing to use the forum for personal attention. The end result may be some adjustment in the weighting of the various factors (1 death is equal to the suffering of ??? million victims) but that is all. The hard decisions will still have to be made and a bunch of people will step up to the plate and make those hard decisions, even though they will never get credit for them but will inevitably get blamed, the next time the media spotlight revolves around to them.
regards,
frog
