The Therac-25 was a computer-controlled radiation therapy machine. Patients were killed by massive overdoses of radiation caused by trivial errors in the computer control program.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therac-25
Due to scientific incompetence, Prof. Niel Ferguson introduced a medical software (a epidemiological model for covid-19) without proper medical trial, and the effects have been even more devastating than Thalidomide or the Therac-25. Why do scientists never learn about software testing?
It is close to impossible to show a complex software is faultless. It is much easier to show specific cases where it is obviously wrong.
The art of testing software is far too complicated to explain here. Point being, where software has a medical application that could involve people's health or safety, or lead to government policies that could result in death, we should subject such software to the same regulations as any medicine. We need to put software under the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, as if it were a vaccine or anything else. The onus must be placed on the manufacturer of the epidemiological model to do (let's call them) phase 1,2 and 3 trials for models, and follow up monitoring, to produce safety and Efficacy evidence.
