I like a lot of what @balajis.eth (👋) says on the network state but I think he's very wrong on circumventing FDA regs for covid treatments. There are very significant reasons why clinical trials should take as long as they do (and why Op Warp Speed will be found to have been a massive mistake).

Complexity explorer. Residing in the liminal.

Banting and Best went from the idea of insulin supplementation to scaled production by Eli Lilly in about three years.

That was a time when pharma moved at the speed of software. High risk, high reward.

https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/frederick-banting-charles-best-james-collip-and-john-macleod

Design, art, nature and tech | cyrus.website |

This was sparked by listening to the a16z podcast today. https://a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/balaji-srinivasan-the-network-state-UvRSmh3N

Thanks for this take. So very wary in general of the move fast and break things approach creeping into synbio and biotech. 

Do you have a link to his comments?

in motion | founder, researcher, scout, storyteller | into computing, communication, complex systems | building subset.network | all the things: msweet.net

I think you’re on to something there. A frustration with progress is understandable, especially when high tech solutions appear to be readily at hand. When it comes to human health though, intervening in a complex adaptive system is fraught with dangers and trying to accelerate solutions often backfires.

Is this due to asymmetry between how an individual versus a collective experiences inertia?

E.g.  for a *high agency* individual like @balajis.eth, the inertia is almost agonising. At the population level, though, the inertia is actually experienced as reliable, mostly risk-free treatment.

“Good casts: eclectic, quirky, witty” - @botornot

I should state my creds first, 10yrs in pharma/biotech delivering R&D and manufacturing projects for Pfizer, AZ, GSK, Novartis, Dupont, and various cellular therapy companies in US, UK, EU and AU. They all spent an enormous amount of time, effort and money on very extensive clinical trials to prove safety and efficacy.

What compelling arguments have you found that Operation Warp Speed will be found to have been a massive mistake?