9.18.2006

Emergency drugs too dangerous to test?

Bid to Stockpile Bioterror Drugs Stymied by Setbacks - New York Times:
Because of the perceived urgency of the threat, the project suspends some traditional standards. It allows new vaccines or drugs to be used in emergencies before completing the lengthy Food and Drug Administration approval process. Full testing on humans is also not required because it is too dangerous, even though that means no one will know with certainty whether the vaccines will work until used in a crisis.
Oh that's certainly reassuring. Not that you're likely to ever take one of these emergency drugs, since the Bushies' $5.6 billion "Project BioShield," an effort to stockpile emergency drugs inspired by the (as yet unsolved) case of the anthrax letters five years ago, has, in the laconic words of the New York Times, "largely failed to deliver."

Meaning there ain't no emergency drugs, Bunky, or at least not enough of them to put you in much danger.

(Reading newspapers is really a very depressing way to start a day.)

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