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The precautionary principle

Dingwall, Robert
http://trusttheevidence.substack.com/p/the-precautionary-principle

Date Written:  14/11/2022
Year Published:  2022  
Resource Type:  Article

Doing stuff 'just in case' is not precautionary. You need evidence.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

As might be imagined, the precautionary principle is not popular with would be innovators, who find that they cannot get their products to market as quickly and cheaply as they would like.... The pharmaceutical industry, in particular, has advocated an 'Innovation principle', where products would be licenced unless there was substantial evidence of harm. This inverts the precautionary principle.
Emergency conditions do not justify the abandonment of the precautionary principle. If action is urgent, but benefits and harms are uncertain, then the actions or innovations must be temporary, provisional and closely monitored with a view to withdrawing or halting them if their benefits are not proportionate to their harms. Doing stuff 'just in case' or 'it might help' is not sufficient.
Pandemic policies would have looked very different if the precautionary principle had been applied correctly, especially to non-pharmaceutical interventions. These should have been examined with the well-established tools of regulation studies in social science and law to consider their legitimacy, proportionality and effectiveness.

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