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  • Hacker News
  • For context, it’s a seasonal flu vaccine, the title is a bit unclear.
    by andy99
  • > Prasad was also behind the rejection of a closely watched gene therapy for Huntington’s disease made by UniQure

    This guy is a disaster. But really it's not just him. It's the entire organizational structure that puts him, or any other one person, in the position that they have the power to do this. There is simply no one qualified.

    We need to have expert scientists to set up trials and review the design of the trials and conduct the analysis of the data. This is something that is generally objective and not able to be done without skills and experience. But then you have to make a decision based on those results. And the decision is some sort of risk reward trade off. While science can quantify what that tradeoff is, which path to take is fundamentally outside of the scope of science.

    Trade offs are not objective determinations at all because they are based on subjective preferences. And therefore it makes no sense to force it into a one size fits all approval or denial by some centralized body. The only rational approach to such a trade off is to allow each individual to choose for themselves. The only person's opinion on whether the risk justifies the reward for the experimental Huntington's disease treatment is the patient's. The best we can do with science is to use it for its intended purpose to produce good data for him to make his choice.

    by consensus1
  • Is this good because flu vaccines are an educated guess as to what will be circulating because it takes so long to culture them all and this will shorten the manufacturing time so the educated guess can take place later in the process (and be more accurate)?
    by 2OEH8eoCRo0
  • The subversion of scientific expertise to replace it with podcasters and political sycophants is one of the biggest disasters of the current years.

    The very concept of merit has been destroyed and replaced with judgement calls on celebrity (necessary for leadership role) and subservience to the political whims of the last 15 minutes (and you had better switch in the next 15 minutes or you're out).

    by epistasis
  • Sounds like at least one step toward putting science back in charge.
    by amanaplanacanal
  • So in at least two fields in which the US still leads (biomedical research, AI), government action is actively harming their ability to compete because of ideological or political reasons.
    by pu_pe
  • Is this the one that's a flu/Covid combo? I live in Europe and have been looking forward to it - especially since the flu part covers way more variants than traditionally - no longer a need to depend on flawed predictions as to what variants will be predominant. Also no longer a need for two sore arms.
    by comrade1234
  • How much death and suffering does this guy have on his conscience?

    I’m so curious how someone goes from being a professor to a science denier? I simply can’t imagine that journey.

    by JSR_FDED

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