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Isn't it a problem of incentives? No one gets penalized if a lifesaving drug gets delayed, but heads will roll if an experimental drug turns out to have horrible side effects and/or financial costs - especially if the test subjects disproportionately belong to a politically-sensitive demographic.

Pandemics are an edge case: it's socially acceptable to violate political and ethical norms during an emergency.

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>problem of incentives

I don't see the problem here. In med school, the first thing we're taught is "primum non nocere". Of course it makes sense to penalize even if no harm is done to patients, if the methodology of testing is wrong or unethical.

> it's socially acceptable to violate ... ethical norms during an emergency

Not exactly. You aren't violating ethical norms, the ethical norms themselves allow or even "force" you to change priorities in emergencies. I would say "It's ethically acceptable to violate social norms during an emergency" fits better.

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