"Ridiculous": the whole point of the OP is that we don't have good predictive models for what treatments will be effective. We have hunches and theories but it is currently too costly to go through the whole process to test them all. One approach would be develop better models, but I'm suggesting another approach would be to reduce the cost of testing them in the real target.
"Inhumane": well that's the ethical question. Some countries compell vaccination because of the societal benefit. I'm not even proposing compulsion.
"Fundamentally ignorant": in the end medicine is needed to treat sick people, not healthy people. The OP makes the point that sometimes a biased, representative sample is better than an unbiased, unrepresentative sample.
"Ridiculous": the whole point of the OP is that we don't have good predictive models for what treatments will be effective. We have hunches and theories but it is currently too costly to go through the whole process to test them all. One approach would be develop better models, but I'm suggesting another approach would be to reduce the cost of testing them in the real target.
"Inhumane": well that's the ethical question. Some countries compell vaccination because of the societal benefit. I'm not even proposing compulsion.
"Fundamentally ignorant": in the end medicine is needed to treat sick people, not healthy people. The OP makes the point that sometimes a biased, representative sample is better than an unbiased, unrepresentative sample.