[ExI] FDA Tells Google-Backed 23andMe to Halt DNA Test Service

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of Mirco Romanato
Subject: Re: [ExI] FDA Tells Google-Backed 23andMe to Halt DNA Test Service

Il 28/11/2013 09:25, Rafal Smigrodzki ha scritto:

>>... ### This is a very interesting perspective - 23andMe being involved in

> an extended, well-thought-out campaign against the FDA, rather than 
> being caught like a deer in the juggernaut's headlights (sorry for the 
> mixed idioms). On second thoughts, yes, of course, after all, 23andMe 
> is Google, so forethought should be assumed...> As Spike points out,
>23andMe might be the perfect test case, pitting 
> informed, internet-empowered consumers against an immensely powerful 
> but slow enemy... abolition of the FDA? A cure for stupidity? One may
dream. Rafal

Rafal they make you lads take an oath before they give you a license to cut
parts out of a prole, and as I recall it has right up front after the
initial pleasantries a comment about "...never do harm to anyone."  Before
we even get to what the US government is doing, I can think of plenty of
harm the FDA has done, is doing and will do, by trying to carry out such
things as efficacy proofs for medications where it isn't needed.  It makes
the pool of medications more effective, but it simultaneously raises the
prices of those medications to place them out of the reach of more and more
of us.  They are protecting us to death.


>...If I was the FDA, I would think twice or more, before picking a fight
with Google. If Google is just a little to much pissed off they could tweak
their search engine and rank up everything bad about the Fed. Not rank up a
lot, just a little... Mirco

You bring up an important issue Mirco that deserves treatment separately
from the current medical debate.  In the specific case of government
intervening excessively in the area of medicine, we recognize that as a
double-edged sword.  We know of such problems as trusted radio voices
selling vitamins claiming it can halt macular degeneration (an example
chosen because it hits close to home.)  We know that elderly people can be
easily led astray by this sort of thing.  We know there are these kinds of
problems, but my notion is that governments should not think they can fix
everything.  But they can sure break everything.  

Note where we are in US history.  We saw the failed ACA rollout on 1
October, but that crash and burn is nothing compared to what we will see the
day after tomorrow, 30 November.  Reasoning: when the 1 October site kept
crashing, most customers just went away, assuming they would come back
later.  They had two and a half months to get on there.  Now they will have
less than three weeks, and since then, jillions of proles have learned their
insurance was being cancelled (because their inadequate plans didn't cover
Sandra Fluke's BCPs.)  So day after tomorrow, Saturday 30 November, we will
see ten times as many people trying to get on a website that still isn't
fixed, even if it is new and improved.  In that new wave are plenty who are
openly hostile, whereas before they were passively neutral.

This will be a spectacular example of failure of government in medicine.
With that backdrop, I can imagine the FDA wishing to avoid a head-on
confrontation with a popular and affordable device like 23andMe, even if we
know it isn't up to the usual medical standards for precision and accuracy.
I see the 23andMe kit as analogous to a home pregnancy test.  I don't see
how the government has any right to regulate that.  I don't see the
justification or the authority anywhere in the constitution, don't see it as
promoting the general welfare, but I do see it as violating that oath they
make Rafal swear to, regarding do no harm to anyone.

spike