Until air transport reached absolute safety levels, it was customary for companies to prevent their top managers from traveling all on the same plane.
Any situation where a certain risk is expected or the effects are not yet known requires a separation between the most important elements.
Such principle is similar to that underlying any scientific experimentation carried out in the field.
When you need to determine the effectiveness of a drug, there must always be a control group.
For two reasons. One is the placebo effect, which is very powerful and lies at the basis of all pre-scientific medicine, which originated in shamanism and is still believed to have some effectiveness.
A drug is considered to be effective when it exceeds the placebo effect in terms of effectiveness without causing harm to the individual. So, first of all you need to have people who believe they have taken a drug without having actually received it.
Not only that. To evaluate all the benefits and harms, all the effects over time must be weighed by comparing them with the group of people who have not received the drug.
A scientific experiment in which a drug is administered to the whole public is by definition fallacious and does not allow to obtain any type of measurable result that can also be used to improve its performance.
For example, if all passengers on a ship are given spoiled food and, after eating it, they report a widespread illness among them, it becomes almost impossible to establish whether they have become sick due to the food they ate, to an elusive dangerous insect, or due to seasickness or collective hypnosis.
In fact, the administration to the entirety of potential users invalidates both the negative effects and the efficacy of the product.
The only way to overcome this inability to analyze the data is to hold on to a sample of subjects that allows the experiment to prove its effectiveness. A group of people who, in a situation of danger, sacrifice themselves for the community should be judged if not as heroes, at least as worthy of gratitude.
Because the only certain effect in cases of total administration is that any damage or ineffectiveness of the product is concealed.
RES HUMANA
