It's about EDTA. It can be legitimately used to treat heavy metal poisoning, plus some other things. Some people (who are probably misguided) want to self-medicate. The FDA won't let you. Hence, drama.

"We do our peers, countrymen, students, and children a grave disservice by admonishing them to think for themselves without also giving them the critical thinking tools to do so, for in so doing we foster a culture where "independent thought" is equated with "contrarian thought". This gives rise to an anti-intellectual, anti-science paradigm that supports an idea not because it meets a basic standard of evidence, but rather simply because it opposes established thought. This is worse than the intellectual calcification that stagnant "herd thinking" would give rise to, because it doesn't simply halt progress — it puts it in full retreat."

That seems more like an "underfunded and underjurisdictioned" problem for a portion of what they do, rather than collapse of the agency.

Sooo that sounds like there's a whole lot of ways for it to get way, way, way worse.

The existence of problems does not imply there cannot be more plentiful, more diverse, and more severe problems in the near future.

Chiron: 2004, the UK government shut down their flu vax plant (it was in the UK). It later came out that the FDA knew what was up and basically let it slide. It was one of the early ani-vax movements torches... Crunchy moms pissed about shots for kids and parents on Oxycodone were not happy with Pharma (or corporations in general: Enron etc..)

> politically unpopular drug shortages ...

Ask your ADHD friends about how they get their meds.

One side wants to keep it, the other side wants to get rid of it. No one wants to fix the problem.

I’ve heard RFK say that it’s hard to ban TV ads for drugs. They are “speech” according to the 1st amendment, or something like that.

Too bad. News broadcasts are full of those ads, and hence TV journalists are loath to investigate the people that pay their salaries.