Risk of Precaution Several European countries stopped vaccinations with AstraZeneca’s product out of an abundance of caution that it was causing blood clots in some recipients. The EU’s medicines regulator now says there is little risk (EMA data shows a 0.0006% rate of blood clots from the vaccine) and that the benefits outweigh the risks. Even the conventional flu vaccine can cause Guillain-Barré Syndrome and even death in a miniscule number of people, but millions of lives are saved. Unexamined is how many more people were infected with COVID-19 or even died due to the hiatus in issuing the prophylactic. Indeed, that is the problem with the precautionary principle in that it focuses solely on risk at the expense of ben...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.