cancer research

[Dick7Access]

has president Trump shut down any cancer research

 

[AccessBlaster]

The reality seems to be more about budget cuts and bureaucratic disruptions rather than a direct order to halt research. Otherwise it would be plastered in every feed. Just my thoughts.

 

[Pat Hartman]

has president Trump shut down any cancer research

Why would he do that? You are believing the TDS twist (and now the MDS twist) the media and the Dems put on everything. Do you think that it is only the government that funds research? Do you think that the government should always fund all scientific research? Do you think we should pay for all types of research regardless of the goal? Do you think research should favor cures rather than treatments?

Usually rumors like this have some basis in reality but I haven't heard this one so I can't say what the actual cuts were, if any or why. The media reports every day that Trump is cutting SS. Do you believe that one also? If they persist in the lie about SS, how can you trust anything they say?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Trump's style has seemed to be to PAUSE a bunch of things while taking a thorough inventory and then coming back to remove the wasteful stuff. So he might PAUSE cancer research but eventually he will resume everything except for a study on incidence of cancer in monarch butterflies - or some other such nonsense.

 

[Pat Hartman]

As Doc said, a pause is not a cut and yet the crazed media/Dems will always report a pause as if it were a permanent cut because that scares people and gets them upset for no reason. The media needs to create chaos and blame it on Trump. The Dems need people to ask your initial question? So they lie, exaggerate, omit key details in order to make that happen. And here we are giving their "twist" credence by even discussing it.

 

[Isaac]

I think the pausing will be pretty painful in various areas but eventually the necessary stuff will come to the surface after they assess and evaluate.
Not the way I would have done it, but whatever

 

[The_Doc_Man]

There are techniques in place in the current government mind-set that if you didn't forcibly pause things, the departments would IMMEDIATELY spend the as-yet-uncommitted money so that the cuts would be too late. I've seen it in the Navy and was told by folks who had jumped around various government services that the "holy moley, let's spend it before it dries up" is a well-known governmental process.

 

[AccessBlaster]

The pharmaceutical companies will not allow for a cure for the common cold, more less cancer. Sorry if this is what you are thinking.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

The pharmaceutical companies will not allow for a cure for the common cold, more less cancer. Sorry if this is what you are thinking.

I'm going to diverge a little bit from Conservative orthodoxy on a fine point. Given that the common cold occurs because of a rhino-virus that mutates frequently, you can't cure it. You might be able to hold it at bay, but evolution hasn't stopped. A cure this week only means that the strains that don't mutate fast enough don't survive. But it says nothing about the strains that keep up with our research.

 

[AccessBlaster]

Yeah, I get it. I also understand it's not in their best interest to cure anything.

 

[Pat Hartman]

Yeah, I get it. I also understand it's not in their best interest to cure anything.

A cure provides 1 payday but treating the symptoms is a gift that keeps on giving. Also, keep in mind that Americans pay the highest drug prices of any other country in the world despite how much money we give the drug companies for R&D. Someone needs to fix this. Maybe if we provide 50% of the R&D money for a new drug, we should get 50% of the profits when it gets to market. Also the patent laws need to change. The patent period kicks in when the testing starts but it could be a decade before the drug hits the market and so the drug company then has 5 years or less to recoup their investment before the patent expires. That's just not right and dramatically increases the cost for new drugs.

 

[AccessBlaster]

It's science—oops, I mean business!

 

[The_Doc_Man]

This is a case where I see both sides of the problem.

A member of Big Pharma gets a vaccine that will help us to resist the current strain of the flu. But one factor regarding that beast is that we haven't found something that resists ALL flu because as it turns out, the flue virus evolves continuously. In an attempt to target a given strain of flu, we make a specific vaccine that targets something about the structure of the beastie, only to find out that next year the vaccine we just developed won't selectively target the new kid on the block. And to make a generic vaccine faces the same issue, except that whatever escapes the generic vaccine would be a nasty little bugger that really COULD reach pandemic levels. Further, we have to remember that viruses are made of the same sorts of things that WE are made of.

Look at some of the commercials for weight-loss or anti-depression drugs and listen to the litany of side-effects that occur because the drug, in order to do its thing, might accidentally do a worse thing elsewhere if you happen to be sensitive to it. That's why I can't take the semaglutide class of drugs. It has side effects that stress the liver, but my liver is not the healthiest part of me. Comedian Jeff Foxworthy has a spot in one of his comedy routines about a drug to eliminate some minor condition, but he has a literal A-to-Z list of diseases and conditions that are side-effects of taking his hypothetical cure for the minor condition. The side effects include halitosis, scoliosis, mononucleosis, and a couple of other osis conditions... but the list keeps on going. I laughed at it. Then about a year after I first heard the spot, I heard a legitimate drug ad where they couldn't use a 15-second spot because the list of known side-effects was over 30 seconds long... and one of the lines was "...If you or a loved one taking 'mumblefratz powder' experience numbness, dizziness, or death, discontinue taking it and call your doctor." I kid you not, it really said to stop using the drug if you experience a list of effects including death. Well, I guarantee that when it comes to taking drugs, if I die, I guarantee I will stop taking that stuff right away! But I digress...

When we talk about business, we talk about how businesses need to stay agile to meet the demands of a constantly changing world. We develop new products, new technologies, new ideas - because that adaptability to changing needs is how businesses survive. Where do you think we got that adaptability from? Bacteria and viruses that adapt to survive.

Big Pharma has made some business decisions regarding pricing that I think are unconscionable. But that doesn't mean that they are 100% scum. They are a useful business with bad practices. Now if we could just separate the good from the bad...

 

[AccessBlaster]

 

[moke123]

has president Trump shut down any cancer research

It's collateral damage.

NIH research cuts threaten the search for life-saving cures and jobs in every state

Ripple effects of the Trump administration's crackdown on U.S. medical research promise to reach every corner of America.

apnews.com

Federal judge blocks drastic funding cuts to medical research

A federal judge is preventing the Trump administration from drastically cutting medical research funding.

apnews.com

 

[Pat Hartman]

It's collateral damage.

And yet Trump, in his first term, issued an EO that gave very ill patients the "right to try" unapproved treatments. Too bad Congress won't make this into law.

Also, keep in mind that freezing payments is NOT the same as cancelling them. The only way to stop the money from being wasted on nonsense is to stop the check from being cashed. Many things are under review and funding will recommence once they are determined to be valid programs.

 

[Isaac]

Somehow or another the government needs to spend less money. I am sure that any cut could generate a legitimate sob story but has to be done anyway

 

[Pat Hartman]

Somehow or another the government needs to spend less money.

Just plain heresy

 

[moke123]

And yet Trump, in his first term, issued an EO that gave very ill patients the "right to try" unapproved treatments. Too bad Congress won't make this into law

On May 22, the Senate passed S.204, the Trickett Wendler, Frank Mongiello, Jordan McLinn and Matthew Bellina Right to Try Act, and sent it to President Trump, who signed it on May 30, 2018, creating a uniform system for terminal patients seeking access to investigational treatments.

According to Scott Gottlieb, who served as commissioner of the FDA under President Donald Trump, before the right-to-try law, the FDA already approved 99% of patient requests for access to experimental drugs, either immediately over the phone or within a few days.

 

[Pat Hartman]

Thanks for the correction. I would fact check Gottlieb since this seems to have been a pretty big problem. If it were a non-problem, why did we need a law to force the issue. Sounds like Gottlieb was replaced by Trump and may have an axe to grind.