One big issue that gets lost in the discussion is how many of these treatments are reasonably safe for perfectly healthy people, and it's the people with risk f

One big issue that gets lost in the discussion is how many of these treatments are reasonably safe for perfectly healthy people, and it's the people with risk factors who need to be concerned. That's why informed consent and choice are so important. Maybe Vioxx was fine for most, and the decrease in digestive symptoms made it the ideal medication for many. Maybe doctors could have withheld prescriptions for people at risk of heart attack. Maybe a big warning could have been placed on every bottle so patients could decide for themselves. But instead it blew up into a drama-fest because one side has to be 100% correct and the other crazy or fraudsters. If this either/or dynamic was addressed we could come close to having our cake and eating it too. But instead everyone is shoe horned into limited studies, and those less-than-healthy people on the fringes are demonized and ostracized as luddites destroying human civilization. Except every once in a while when big pharma gets the blame for pushing safety risks too far.