> why would we want to sell drugs that are "safe" but ineffective? Because "ineffective" in your question actually means "not proven by the FDA to be effective

> why would we want to sell drugs that are "safe" but ineffective? Because "ineffective" in your question actually means "not proven by the FDA to be effective" and the FDA, like all organizations, isn't perfect or perfectly responsive. For example, early COVID testing kits by third party labs that were safe and realistically effective but not yet approved. For example, this Alzheimer treatment that has controversial efficacy but the FDA could only choose between banning it completely or forcing insurance & Medicare to cover it. We can make exceptions in scenarios where ineffective treatments have unusually high external risks such as the COVID-19 pandemic before effective vaccines were available. Now, someone who pays attention to the FDA can use an FDA approved vaccine to immunize themselves to the disease spread by people who make decisions based on YouTube rumors. Sounds safe enough to me. We each make our own choices.