The FDA is a big slow bureaucracy. Also, all of their incentives are to block new things. If they approve a new medical treatment or diagnostic that ends up har

The FDA is a big slow bureaucracy. Also, all of their incentives are to block new things. If they approve a new medical treatment or diagnostic that ends up harming people, they'll get tons of bad publicity and the individuals who approved it could lose their jobs. If they block things, few seem to notice (see everyone in this thread talking about CDC funding being cut). For example: The FDA took a decade longer than the rest of the world to approve the first beta-blocker (timolol). That caused around 100,000 deaths. The FDA is also the reason why epipens are so expensive (along with countless other generic drugs).[1] That said, it looks like they'll approve a standard covid19 test soon.[2] 1. https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/08/29/reverse-voxsplaining-drugs-vs-chairs/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/08/29/reverse-voxsplaining-d... 2. https://twitter.com/davidalim/status/1233032552056807426 https://twitter.com/davidalim/status/1233032552056807426