> ... ethicist Jerry Menikoff [...] had decided maybe it was unethical to do RCTs on ventilator settings at all. He asked whether they might be able to give every patient the right setting while still doing the study. The study team tried to explain to him that they didn’t know which was the right setting, that was why they had to do the study. He wouldn’t budge.
> Finally, after a year, another panel of experts ruled in favor of the investigators and gave them permission to restart the study right away. They did, but the delay was responsible for thousands of deaths, and produced a chain effect on ventilator research that made us less prepared for the surge in ventilator demand around COVID.
People who do not understand or accept the role of risk-taking in the expansion of scientific knowledge and the betterment of the human condition should not be in positions of authority over the scientific process.
I have to ask: what went wrong here? Why would such a person be in this position? Surely a judgment like this is exceptionally bad...? Or has the rot spread much farther, to the point where incompetence this severe is normal?
> Finally, after a year, another panel of experts ruled in favor of the investigators and gave them permission to restart the study right away. They did, but the delay was responsible for thousands of deaths, and produced a chain effect on ventilator research that made us less prepared for the surge in ventilator demand around COVID.
People who do not understand or accept the role of risk-taking in the expansion of scientific knowledge and the betterment of the human condition should not be in positions of authority over the scientific process.
I have to ask: what went wrong here? Why would such a person be in this position? Surely a judgment like this is exceptionally bad...? Or has the rot spread much farther, to the point where incompetence this severe is normal?