> they're exempt because it's an emergency and all evidence points at the treatment being better than the disease

I know you don't write the law, so these questions are more in the vein of statements with questionmarks:

* Why only consider evidence of cost vs. benefit in an emergency?

* Why are vaccines suddenly safe in an emergency and not at other times?

This pandemic proved that we can produce a "safe and effective" vaccine in 12 months. That is apparently a record. It shouldn't be - this signals that 75% of the wait time for new cures and vaccines is red tape.