> Of 1000 people treated with a statin for five years, 18 would avoid a major CVD event which compares well with other treatments used for preventing cardiovascular disease. Taking statins did not increase the risk of serious adverse effects such as cancer. Statins are likely to be cost-effective in primary prevention.

I also think that while there are circumstances where animal models are not helpful, those tend to make the news because they are the exception rather than the rule. There are many, many diseases where animal models were critical for figuring out at least where to look for human disease processes. In addition, a lot of the issues with mouse models are not due to the fact that mice are inherently a poor substitute for humans, but that the models (the specific genes mutated) were a poor mimic of human diseases. For example: "Measurements of gait and grip strength showed that their muscle deficits were in fact mild, and post-mortem examination found that the animals died not of progressive muscle atrophy, but of acute bowel obstruction caused by deterioration of smooth muscles in the gut." [https://www.nature.com/articles/507423a]

I'm sorry, what??? Correlation != causation. We have become more energy efficient, and it does not follow at all that cheaper energy will increase our GDP by 2-3x.