That's a complete misreading of the situation and I don't think Minna is making any point. In fact, I doubt much thought was put into the composition, let alone an attempt at making a contrast.
You might be right, in that I don't know Minna's intent and she may just have drawn a year 0 boardroom with almost all men in it, and the men making all the decisions, either without thinking about it, or by pure chance; despite the fact that we've seen no such situation in year 90. But I'm surprised by how absolutely certain you're able to feel about it.
This comment is even more puzzling in that [ . . . ] the opinion that prevailed from that meeting IS that of the lady scientist.
Not really. Her opinion seems to be 'it won't work so don't use it.' She starts to take the failed serum away with her, and is stopped. The person who decides to actually act, by putting the serum into production, is the one who prevailed; and he doesn't seem to be agreeing with her.
It's true that the general sense of the final panels is 'nothing will work.' But there's no sign that this is in response to her comment. Her comment was ignored at the time that she made it, and is shown in smaller type than the others -- which I took as possibly meaning that she doesn't expect to be heard in any case and so isn't bothering to speak up, though it's possible that the smaller type is only meant to express discouragement.
As far as the Friday page: are we to presume that Mikkel doesn't know the serum may have been used in any case (that not having been in the papers he read), or that he thinks it's only important that it wasn't a cure and so didn't report to the others that it may have been used
despite because of apparently stopping the rash (though without saving lives), or that he did give the others this information but they all think the only thing that matters is that it wasn't a cure?