Monday, April 3, 2023

FDA ignores the costs of safe vaccines

Henry Hazlett, longtime editor of the WSJ, wrote a book called Economics in One Lesson in which he made a simple point:  the opportunity costs of many regulations are hidden.  MarginalRevolution applies this lesson to the Food and Drug Administration, and their blind devotion to developing safe vaccines.  

Here is the problem: if a vaccine is approved and it results in some harm to some people, the harm is visible and the FDA gets the blame.  However, if the FDA delays the vaccine until they know it is absolutely safe, the harm is invisible.  We don't see the harm to "remote work, closing schools, and canceling normal medical appointments."  In fact, the FDA never even considers it.  They do benefit-cost analysis by considering only the benefits of safe vaccines, not their costs.  

1 comment: