News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Nearly 400 medical devices, procedures and practices found ineffective in study. Parent comment

Re:Nearly 400 medical devices, procedures and practices foun... by gumby on Thursday June 13, 2019 @11:20AM (#20175702)
You pay hardly anything to the agency -- their fees are a rounding error compared to all your other costs. And while it's valuable for some jobs to have on your resume that you used to work there, so many people have done so over the years that it doesn't raise any salaries; it's merely that for certain regulatory roles it's good to have someone who knows what it's like to receive the filings so you can make them clear.

It's utterly unlike the legislator->lobbyist revenue model or, say, the Department of the Interior where the regulators were doing drugs and having sex with employees of the companies they were regulating. It's more like "oh, you worked on DevOps at $LARGE_COMPANY_X, our needs are similar to theirs." Not the magic path to riches.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Nearly 400 medical devices, procedures and practices foun... by geggam on Thursday June 13, 2019 @11:24AM (#20175747)
When employees at the FDA leave and take positions at one of the companies they had a hand in approving something for, at an increased salary. The appearance of impropriety is blatant.

Regardless of it actually happening or not it looks terrible. This should never happen

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Nearly 400 medical devices, procedures and practices foun... by gumby on Thursday June 13, 2019 @11:59AM (#20176127)
> Regardless of it actually happening or not it looks terrible. This should never happen

I understand the problem you're describing, but consider what you're asking for: people with competence and experience should be barred from taking jobs that require competence and experience? Non-competes have the same problem.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Nearly 400 medical devices, procedures and practices foun... by geggam on Thursday June 13, 2019 @12:47PM (#20176571)
Think of it like a judge. You should be recusing yourself of anything that looks improper.

Public servants have a higher standard they need to adhere to and they simply aren't, it is endemic in the public space.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Nearly 400 medical devices, procedures and practices foun... by Fomite on Thursday June 13, 2019 @01:12PM (#20176812)
Public servants are not compensated for that higher standard.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Nearly 400 medical devices, procedures and practices foun... by gumby on Thursday June 13, 2019 @01:41PM (#20177058)
I’m not “compensated” financially when I pick up litter I encounter when walking around but that doesn’t dissuade me from doing so.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Nearly 400 medical devices, procedures and practices foun... by Fomite on Friday June 14, 2019 @12:43PM (#20184388)
When picking up trash substantially impacts your lifetime earnings, that might matter.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Nearly 400 medical devices, procedures and practices foun... by evandijk70 on Thursday June 13, 2019 @12:01PM (#20176150)
I am not in this field, but I guess that as an employee at the FDA you approve drugs for all the big pharma companies, which aside from the FDA are the major employers that value their skillset. It may be that if you prohibit FDA employees to transition to one of the big pharma companies, you're telling them that they can either work at the FDA forever or have to leave their field
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Nearly 400 medical devices, procedures and practices foun... by geggam on Thursday June 13, 2019 @12:49PM (#20176586)
Yes, there is a price to pay for being a public servant.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Nearly 400 medical devices, procedures and practices foun... by Fomite on Thursday June 13, 2019 @01:13PM (#20176817)
You realize they're not actually servants, right?

"Take a job with the Fed, sign up for a lifetime of lower income so that HN can nod sagely about avoiding the appearance of impropriety" is a recipe to get no one to ever work for the government.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Nearly 400 medical devices, procedures and practices foun... by geggam on Thursday June 13, 2019 @03:14PM (#20177767)
The attitude they aren’t servants to the public is part of the problem
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Nearly 400 medical devices, procedures and practices foun... by gumby on Thursday June 13, 2019 @12:34PM (#20176468)
“Hand in approving” is an important factor: approval is such a complex process no one person is really decisive, except possibly at the very very beginning.

Drug companies used to hire multiple trucks simply to deliver their submissions.

[ Parent | on HN ]