I would say that two things are at play:(1) the shorts are...

I would say that two things are at play:

(1) the shorts are totally in control of the price (as they really have been all along), having AGAIN predicted that MSB would screw the pooch and be knocked back, NOT getting an approval that would permit them to sell products in the US, thus permitting them to pile on EVEN MORE with their doom and gloom story and their cross-trading, to drive this even lower, further extend their profits and close out their short positions (until they decide to open them again once some good news comes out that causes the SP to rise a bit again...); and

(2) retail holders (are there really any left after this bloodletting?!) already view this company as radioactive, toxic, unreliable, and utterly unable to get a product across the line, in spite of years of (at least partially failed, and where successful, not "successful enough" to justify immediate approval) trials and endless capital raises. Anyone with less than a detailed knowledge of the history, the science, the trial results, etc., etc., etc., would find it all too easy to believe the doom and gloom story told by the shorts, and all too hard to see how on Earth this company will ever turn a profit.

The nuance you describe ("It's not a no, exactly...but it's not really a yes, either...we will just have to wait (another...) 40 days or so to see how good...or, well, maybe how bad...it really is...) sounds like a load of tosh to the vast majority of (2) (and kind of sounds like tosh to me, too), and makes easy fodder for (1) to sling further mud at the company that really sticks.

SI made a deal with the devil a looooong time ago, accepting the shorts as a necessary evil to keep getting his cap raises. Now that's coming back to bite him in the rear end.

Live by the short? Die by the short.

And if the company goes down the gurgler because he cannot pull that rabbit out of his hat one more time? Well, the shorts will just move on to the next easy mark (and my goodness, has this company been an easy mark...).