Nearly 400 medical devices, procedures and practices found ineffective in study
I think it's bad policy for the FDA to screen medicines not just for safety but also efficacy. From this study it appears to be frequently unjustified but it gives the drug a seal of approval that has a tendency to replace the judgement of doctors and patients. It's not that the FDA decision makers are corrupt or incompetent. These are wildly complex issues that nobody can get right consistently. Better not to conceal that with centralized decision making.<p>Modern medicine can't even agree in broad strokes on the proper ratio of macronutrients for humans. We give them too much power when we uncritically accept their judgement on any given treatment. For me, prayer would have no effect. For others it could be a life saving intervention.  The efficacy of a particular molecule for a particular patient isn't much easier than that to determine. Therefore decision making should be as decentral and computationally parallel as we can make it.