Some ideas are bad. Others are simply terrible.
A group of congressional lawmakers has found a way to put military personnel at risk and undermine regulatory standards for approving medicines — all at once.
Under legislation that was crafted by House and Senate negotiators, a special Department of Defense panel would be authorized to approve certain drugs and devices for emergency use when members of the armed forces confront “agents of war.”
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This article is rediculous and only looks at one angle. There are several drugs and capabilities that could be saving lives on the battlefield already but are held back by the FDA and apprehensive decision makers. One is freeze-dried plasma which is just another means of delivering a blood product that has been saving lives for over half a century. Not dangerous and more life-saving opportunities.
And let’s face the fact that much of the FDA process is about money and not patient safety.
The military has been using amphetamines known as “Go Pills” since WWII when our intelligence reported the widespread use of Methamphetamines by German troops.
My Vietnam buddies were similarly on pep pills. Helped to jack them up when they were ordered to go into free fire zones, slaughter women and babies, incinerate their crops, and torch their villages. Then go back to base and inhale marijuana through the barrel of an M16 to relieve the emotional pain.
Don’t foeget our misadventures with psychochemical warfare, the secret experimental program, MKUltra, and the administration of LSD and psilocybin, all went very well until the volunteers started eating their guns, or thinking they were superman and jumping off tall buildings.
I think it depends on the situation. During WW2 troops fighting in tropical zones were dying of malaria, and some of antimalarials were inconvenient to take. The once a day drug mepacrine was untested but wound up saving lives. Also some of the greatest advances in surgery happened in war time. I know from my dad, who ran a MASH unit.
Ed this article is poppin