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How is discussion on HN different from the leadership levels at FDA? Very different. Decisions with enormous health implications, enormous financial implicatio

How is discussion on HN different from the leadership levels at FDA? Very different. Decisions with enormous health implications, enormous financial implications, are made at FDA. At HN, most people are here to learn, here to understand more. Vinay Prasad is a fraud, completely unfit for the leadership role he was placed into, making baffling and arbitrary decisions on his own, overturning those with far more experience, knowledge and expertise. If a HN comment gets things wrong, a few people might be misinformed, if they are credulous enough to not double check things. When the FDA makes decisions like they have been making, thousands to millions of peoples' lives are worse off, and billions in capital is wasted. Discussion forums of all sorts are incredibly valuable, even when they get things wrong. I have lots of complaints about the overhyping of, say, CRISPR, especially on HN, but whatever, it's a far far higher signal-to-noise than a random person I meet around town. Mention you work on drug development for big pharma to the random person and they think you're evil, at least HN is less likely to have that basic misconception.

naturalmovement 4mo ago
Imagine being able to shut down discussion at the FDA because a few anonymous randos pushed a "flag" button when they saw something they disagreed with.
- sieabahlpark 4mo ago
  [dead]
- dlev_pika 4mo ago
  Apparently, the ‘fuck your feelings’ crowd DOES care about some ‘feelings’
  - epistasis 4mo ago
    They were actually clear about this, it's only your feelings that don't matter, not feelings in general. In their minds there are two classes of people, and all of politics and law is about establishing the hierarchy. For the in group, the law is meant to protect and not bind, and the out group for which the law exists to bind but not protect. It's clear in the language about "criminals" too. Actual convictions and clear corruption in the in group politicians? That's A-OK. An immigrant that is showing up for an official hearing? Time to be whisked away and treated with cruel and unusual punishment, whether or not their bureaucratic forms were filled out perfectly. (In particular I'm thinking of the immigration raid where South Korean professionals were helping to set up a battery factory and treated with chains as if they were violent criminals)
Zhenya 4mo ago
I’m curious why you claim he’s a fraud, I just learned about him from this thread.
- epistasis 4mo ago
  Prasad, to the extent he had a reputation before, was for critiquing the scientific practice as inadequate, which would hope that he'd bring the idea of rigor to his stint at the FDA. Instead, we see quite the opposite: - This baffling Moderna decision, which is so bad that many in the industry assumed it was from a failed bribe solicitation - Linked in this article is the "truly evil" decision requiring sham brain surgery in the placebo arm for a Huntington Disease trial https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/06/truly-evil-fda-rejection-of-gene-therapy-overturned-after-trump-official-ousted/ https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/06/truly-evil-fda-reject... - Prasad holding a defamatory PR event about the company producing the HD candidate treatment, and only talking "on background" to hide his identity, which is sleazy and unethical "The criticism apparently struck a nerve with Prasad. The FDA held a press briefing later Thursday in which an unnamed “senior FDA official”—who identified himself as a hematology-oncologist—launched into a diatribe against UniQure, saying its “failed therapy” was supported by “distorted and manipulated” data. As for Woodcock’s comments, the official said he “expect[s] better” from her." https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/03/trumps-divisive-fda-vaccine-regulator-self-destructs-will-exit-agency-again/ https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/03/trumps-divisive-fda-v... - His first ouster and reinstatement last year, over a unilateral Duchenne muscular dystrophy decision, severely lacking in scientific rigor and analysis - Lied on his CV about being on a highly prestigious council he was not on (The Cancer Letter is not a random YouTube channel, it's high quality cancer research journalism) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCASAb7J-LE&t=41 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCASAb7J-LE&t=41 As is often the case with such contrarians and critics, their own critiques apply most aptly to themselves.
  - JumpCrisscross 4mo ago
    > Lied on his CV about being on a highly prestigious council You called this “minor CV fibbing” above. If he was lying about this when he applied for tenure, wouldn’t that be Cause?
JumpCrisscross 4mo ago
> Vinay Prasad is a fraud What’s with him being allowed to continue to practice at the University of California [1]? [1] https://vinayakkprasad.com/ https://vinayakkprasad.com/
- epistasis 4mo ago
  That is a good question, and I'm sure many of the people at UCSF are asking similar questions. However, his sort of misconduct is not the type that would usually violate tenure protections. Beyond the minor CV fibbing, without some evidence that he actually, say, solicited a bribe from Moderna, it's unlikely that he can face any sort of official sanction. The fraud is in his supposed thrust towards better scientific rigor when he is so sloppy with major decisions of life and death. Just as the comment up there says that HN comments that are critical and misinformed get a lot of attention and upvotes, Prasad has been highly critical and misinformed about scientific research, and his stint at the FDA has exposed that his critiques are much like that top-level HN comment that doesn't get things quite right.
  - JumpCrisscross 4mo ago
    > not the type that would usually violate tenure How can one tell whether he has tenure?
    - epistasis 4mo ago
      For normal research universities, like UCSF, the titles of Professor and Associate Professors have tenure. Assistant Professors are tenure-track, meaning that they have the chance to get tenure. Prasad has the title of Professor.
      - JumpCrisscross 4mo ago
        Would you say Prasad’s public-health misconduct rises to the level where creating a statutory change to what permits firing under tenure makes sense?
mmooss 4mo ago
> Decisions with enormous health implications, enormous financial implications, are made at FDA. Yes, I started writing that and didn't finish the sentence (see my edit near the end of the GP). But I don't let HN off the hook: The attitude I described in the GP represents and perpetrates the same outlook that politically supports or tolerates this behavior from the FDA. HN users generally legitimize that approach rather than discrediting it. > Mention you work on drug development for big pharma to the random person and they think you're evil I think that's paranoid: The random person won't know what that means. Few who know will also know or care about the social implications. Of those who do, only some will be knee-jerk critical of big pharma, and fewer still of research rather than the business side. It's also a victim perspective: Big Pharma has enormous power; punching up at power by questioning, criticizing, and being skeptical (or even cynical) is not at all the same thing as punching down at the vulnerable. If someone wants the power and resources and salary of Big Pharma, benefitting from its enormous power, the pushback and reputation impact comes with it (though the latter is usually positive - great resume material and credibility).
DANmode 4mo ago
People making decisions at the FDA should also be actively learning and understanding more all the time. That should be their primary objective.
deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]
8note 4mo ago
> Mention you work on drug development for big pharma to the random person and they think you're evil this is how Martin Shkreli described his work of identifying drug patents to buy that he could jack up the prices on. If that's the extent of the description you gave, I think random people would be right to first think you are doing something evil
bediger4000 4mo ago
At HN, most people are here to learn, here to understand more. There's a substantial "learn and understand" cohort, but there are other factions. At the start of the pandemic, there were 2 posters explicitly here to proselytize Trump style conservatism. I'm reasonably certain there was an anti-vaxx voting ring 2020-22, and I suspect there's remnant Elon fanboy and MAGA coordinated voting. I'd love to be proved wrong on these things.
- hilariously 4mo ago
  Oh they are still here, last time I had a good chuckle was the group arguing that The Pope Is A Democrat. "You know your brain is pickled when..."

naturalmovement 4mo ago

Imagine being able to shut down discussion at the FDA because a few anonymous randos pushed a "flag" button when they saw something they disagreed with.

sieabahlpark 4mo ago
[dead]
dlev_pika 4mo ago
Apparently, the ‘fuck your feelings’ crowd DOES care about some ‘feelings’
- epistasis 4mo ago
  They were actually clear about this, it's only your feelings that don't matter, not feelings in general. In their minds there are two classes of people, and all of politics and law is about establishing the hierarchy. For the in group, the law is meant to protect and not bind, and the out group for which the law exists to bind but not protect. It's clear in the language about "criminals" too. Actual convictions and clear corruption in the in group politicians? That's A-OK. An immigrant that is showing up for an official hearing? Time to be whisked away and treated with cruel and unusual punishment, whether or not their bureaucratic forms were filled out perfectly. (In particular I'm thinking of the immigration raid where South Korean professionals were helping to set up a battery factory and treated with chains as if they were violent criminals)

Zhenya 4mo ago

I’m curious why you claim he’s a fraud, I just learned about him from this thread.

epistasis 4mo ago
Prasad, to the extent he had a reputation before, was for critiquing the scientific practice as inadequate, which would hope that he'd bring the idea of rigor to his stint at the FDA. Instead, we see quite the opposite: - This baffling Moderna decision, which is so bad that many in the industry assumed it was from a failed bribe solicitation - Linked in this article is the "truly evil" decision requiring sham brain surgery in the placebo arm for a Huntington Disease trial https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/06/truly-evil-fda-rejection-of-gene-therapy-overturned-after-trump-official-ousted/ https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/06/truly-evil-fda-reject... - Prasad holding a defamatory PR event about the company producing the HD candidate treatment, and only talking "on background" to hide his identity, which is sleazy and unethical "The criticism apparently struck a nerve with Prasad. The FDA held a press briefing later Thursday in which an unnamed “senior FDA official”—who identified himself as a hematology-oncologist—launched into a diatribe against UniQure, saying its “failed therapy” was supported by “distorted and manipulated” data. As for Woodcock’s comments, the official said he “expect[s] better” from her." https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/03/trumps-divisive-fda-vaccine-regulator-self-destructs-will-exit-agency-again/ https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/03/trumps-divisive-fda-v... - His first ouster and reinstatement last year, over a unilateral Duchenne muscular dystrophy decision, severely lacking in scientific rigor and analysis - Lied on his CV about being on a highly prestigious council he was not on (The Cancer Letter is not a random YouTube channel, it's high quality cancer research journalism) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCASAb7J-LE&t=41 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCASAb7J-LE&t=41 As is often the case with such contrarians and critics, their own critiques apply most aptly to themselves.
- JumpCrisscross 4mo ago
  > Lied on his CV about being on a highly prestigious council You called this “minor CV fibbing” above. If he was lying about this when he applied for tenure, wouldn’t that be Cause?

JumpCrisscross 4mo ago

> Vinay Prasad is a fraud What’s with him being allowed to continue to practice at the University of California [1]? [1] https://vinayakkprasad.com/ https://vinayakkprasad.com/

epistasis 4mo ago
That is a good question, and I'm sure many of the people at UCSF are asking similar questions. However, his sort of misconduct is not the type that would usually violate tenure protections. Beyond the minor CV fibbing, without some evidence that he actually, say, solicited a bribe from Moderna, it's unlikely that he can face any sort of official sanction. The fraud is in his supposed thrust towards better scientific rigor when he is so sloppy with major decisions of life and death. Just as the comment up there says that HN comments that are critical and misinformed get a lot of attention and upvotes, Prasad has been highly critical and misinformed about scientific research, and his stint at the FDA has exposed that his critiques are much like that top-level HN comment that doesn't get things quite right.
- JumpCrisscross 4mo ago
  > not the type that would usually violate tenure How can one tell whether he has tenure?
  - epistasis 4mo ago
    For normal research universities, like UCSF, the titles of Professor and Associate Professors have tenure. Assistant Professors are tenure-track, meaning that they have the chance to get tenure. Prasad has the title of Professor.
    - JumpCrisscross 4mo ago
      Would you say Prasad’s public-health misconduct rises to the level where creating a statutory change to what permits firing under tenure makes sense?

mmooss 4mo ago

> Decisions with enormous health implications, enormous financial implications, are made at FDA. Yes, I started writing that and didn't finish the sentence (see my edit near the end of the GP). But I don't let HN off the hook: The attitude I described in the GP represents and perpetrates the same outlook that politically supports or tolerates this behavior from the FDA. HN users generally legitimize that approach rather than discrediting it. > Mention you work on drug development for big pharma to the random person and they think you're evil I think that's paranoid: The random person won't know what that means. Few who know will also know or care about the social implications. Of those who do, only some will be knee-jerk critical of big pharma, and fewer still of research rather than the business side. It's also a victim perspective: Big Pharma has enormous power; punching up at power by questioning, criticizing, and being skeptical (or even cynical) is not at all the same thing as punching down at the vulnerable. If someone wants the power and resources and salary of Big Pharma, benefitting from its enormous power, the pushback and reputation impact comes with it (though the latter is usually positive - great resume material and credibility).

DANmode 4mo ago

People making decisions at the FDA should also be actively learning and understanding more all the time. That should be their primary objective.

deleted 4mo ago

[deleted]

8note 4mo ago

> Mention you work on drug development for big pharma to the random person and they think you're evil this is how Martin Shkreli described his work of identifying drug patents to buy that he could jack up the prices on. If that's the extent of the description you gave, I think random people would be right to first think you are doing something evil

bediger4000 4mo ago

At HN, most people are here to learn, here to understand more. There's a substantial "learn and understand" cohort, but there are other factions. At the start of the pandemic, there were 2 posters explicitly here to proselytize Trump style conservatism. I'm reasonably certain there was an anti-vaxx voting ring 2020-22, and I suspect there's remnant Elon fanboy and MAGA coordinated voting. I'd love to be proved wrong on these things.

hilariously 4mo ago
Oh they are still here, last time I had a good chuckle was the group arguing that The Pope Is A Democrat. "You know your brain is pickled when..."