Tyler Cowen: evaluation

Transcript context

…You’re already talking about, “We need a high-trust society where we can really rely on things, so we don’t have to examine individually every time every item, even to make the informed consent process go well.” And then you say, “Let’s get the FDA out of here because I should be able to do whatever the hell I want with my body.” Wrong. We all need to rely on the fact that the medicines we take are proven safe and proven effective, and we have to have institutional structures to oversee that. Some individuals may be able to do it. But we have a society of 325 million people, and we have these institutional structures to oversee what we’re taking is safe and effective for all of us, not just for the lone individual who’s got a lot of money who says, “I want to do it. Damn you all.” You want to do it, damn us all? You’ve got enough money. Go to Tahiti. It’s really not the institutional structure we want. And we know that because thalidomide . . . unfortunately, I think the FDA has swung to approving drugs that have risks and either low or, in some cases, they’ve even approved drugs with no benefits. I think that’s a mistake. We have to get better approval. We have created a process of compassionate use where, if a drug’s been proven relatively safe — not completely safe; relatively safe — patients can solicit to get it without, I think, before it’s been finally approved. I don’t actually . . . I’m not a big fan of that. If someone starts shooting at me with a gun, maybe it is better for everyone if I simply duck. But do I have a right to shoot back, or to try to charge them and get the gun away from them, and possibly create more public violence? I guess you do have that right, but it’s —…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.