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Also, the origin of the FDA was a time when people could advertise and sell "medicines" which failed to treat or cure anything, and routinely lie about the ingr
by ubernostrum 11y ago
Also, the origin of the FDA was a time when people could advertise and sell "medicines" which failed to treat or cure anything, and routinely lie about the ingredients and their medicinal properties (or lack thereof), a problem which the free market was conspicuously failing to solve.
So now, anyone can sell medicine, but if they want to claim it's effective for some disease or condition they have to actually back up the claim.
- seehafer 11y agoOne could argue that much of government regulation came about because of massive information asymmetry. In the age of the Internet it is much harder to peddle snake oil cures (though not impossible, certainly, look at anti-vaxxers) than it was in the early 20th century.
- Fomite 11y ago"Much harder" turns out to still be trivially easy - supplements, the anti-vaxx folks, every weight loss pill ever...