3 ms·
What the article title didn't stress is the word "a few selected". Just to re-iterate what it says in the article, the intent was that this draft policy change
by devy 7y ago
What the article title didn't stress is the word "a few selected".
Just to re-iterate what it says in the article, the intent was that this draft policy change to re-allow (currently banned since 3 years ago) "select elite hospitals in China to sell experimental therapies would give people with terminal illnesses faster access to potentially effective treatments."
First, this proposed lifted ban is only for select elite hospitals NOT all hospitals.
Second, for terminally illness, experimental therapies are indeed used as a last resort treatment. Just like many other countries. And many anecdotes we've heard. E.g. Was virus treatment FDA approved? No! Did the doctors have any other way to save this patient on a life-and-death situation? Not really. [1]
[1]: https://www.livescience.com/61963-virus-found-in-lake-treats-bacterial-infection.html https://www.livescience.com/61963-virus-found-in-lake-treats...
- melling 7y agoConsidering that China has a billion more people than the US, it’s great to see them trying to push the boundaries of medicine.
- aBillionDead 7y agoYeah, because that’s how counting people works. Got a billion extra people? Herd ‘em into patient wards and start the experiments! We’ve got a billion extra chances to get it right! Just because you’ve got extra people means they’re expendable right? Does that extend to every context, including military deployments? Just hose off that pesky opposition force with an extra million or two human wave attacks? Anticipate the victory as pyrrhic, and do it anyway? No expectation that even 10% will survive the flood of violence? I say again, is this how you count human lives?
- killjoywashere 7y agoNote, a "few selected" == "roughly 1,400 elite hospitals" From what my friends who do business with, or are physicians from, China tell me, medicine in China can often be a pretty brutal assembly line, complete with bribes being passed, literally, under the table. Having worked in a number of "top" US hospitals, I would be interested in what the 1400th hospital looks like in this scenario.
- Barrin92 7y agoFor reference, there's about ~31000 hospitals in China as of 2018, so that'd be the top 4-5% presumably.