If you want to be trusted you have to be consistently trustworthy.
What else is the FDA wrong about and will continue to be wrong about for decades?
1. Manufacturing quality/ingredients accuracy (is the product what is says on the tin) 2. Safety 3. Efficacy
Medicines must pass all three, supplements don't have to meet any.
And in the case of drug effectiveness, isn't this a very expensive endeavor, where the primary source of funding would be the companies themselves biasing results?
In this case we had companies happily selling us ineffective drugs, not because the FDA wanted it, but because they did not reject it. In a world without the FDA, what entity rejects?
I bet you think people should trust you even though I also bet you were wrong about something once.
Is there anything I've been wrong about which has been significant for a couple of decades?
Pseudoephedrine left OTC in about 2006, phenylephrine has been the main decongestant available and there's been solid evidence out there for a long time that it didn't do anything.
I don't hear anything that shows that this mistake is part of the majority or minority.
How long ago it was made is insignificant.
I have no reason to think that you do not have a similar 20 year old ongoing error unless you are physically not yet 20 years old. I'm sure I probably do. I'm sure everyone does. It's not a remarkable thing.
They are also right now self-correcting this error, while I still have mine whatever they are.
Regardless, it still doesn't answer the question of exception vs rule. No matter how bad or long-running this error is, it doesn't matter, what matters is, is it representative of most of their policies and actions? It might be, but you have not shown that it is and I have not shown that it's not.
> What else is the FDA wrong about
Too much. For one, numerous harmful additives are freely allowed. These additives may not cause immediate damage, but over the long term they really inflame the gut. They serve no good purpose in the medicines. Examples include: propylene glycol, sodium lauryl sulfate, titanium dioxide, talc, ammonium hydroxide, monoethanolamine, n-butyl alcohol.