re: What is or isn't "Woo", how about Pradaxa? Science or woo? Should it have ever been OKd at all?

[cthulu2016]

26. If all bad science was woo...

The explosion of the space shuttle Challenger was (to cite an example) not due to pseudo-science. It was due to poor engineering.

If someone had proposed a theory that rubber becomes fire-proof when fashioned into a circle because the circle is a perfect form that would be woo.

But the miscalculation of how easily the rubber O-rings could be burned through was just an engineering error. It wasn't based on any exotic theory. It was not set up as scientifically untestable.

It was just an error in a system of execution within science.

And since protocols that block all potentially dangerous prescription meds would be blocking too many worthwhile medicines we are talking about setting a level of acceptable risk.

One can argue that the accepted level of risk is too high, but an accepted risk level too high in drug approval protocols is hardly pseudo-science.

It is policy, which exists to be continually examined in light of evidence.