@Cycloptichorn,
Cycloptichorn wrote:The truth is that my Grandma can't use 'any metrics she likes' to tell if her drugs are working. She doesn't have the ability to do so, even if she wanted to;
In that case, she should defer to the expertise of people she trusts on the matter. That would probably be her doctor. And if the doctor gets his facts from the FDA, fine. As I said, I approve of the FDA for its information-providing services.
Cycloptichorn wrote: no individual does.
I know of at least one individual who does. An uncle of mine has an obscure auto-immune disease that would kill him within weeks without proper medication. He is allergic to the standard medication; the allergy would kill him just as quickly. There is a nonstandard medication, licensed for standard autoimmune illnesses, that works perfectly for him. But because his illness is so obscure, the producer has decided against licensing the product for that illness. Licenses from the
Bundesgesundheitsamt, the German FDA, require extensive clinical trials. The market for my uncle's illness was too small to justify the cost.
How did my uncle survive? By finding a doctor who writes fraudulent prescriptions for him so he can buy his medication. There is no legal way for him to get access. If the
Bundesgesundheitsamt got wind of the true purpose of the prescription, the doctor would lose his license to practice medicine, and my uncle would lose his life.
Is my uncle's case typical? There's no way of telling. He keeps his mouth shut, as would everyone in his situation, so how could we possibly find out if there's others like him? But since your claim was that
no individual can tell if a drug is working, it only takes one counterexample to rebut it.
