Silent But Deadly
In the spirit of full disclosure, I feel compelled to make clear some of my core political positions and biases. I oppose cancer. I am against Alzheimer’s. I frown upon deadly pandemics. I consider myself an adversary of AIDS. I deplore diabetes. I object to malaria. I detest TB. I disapprove of dangerous viruses. I hold a pretty deep-seated antipathy toward plagues. In general, I can be a bit of a zealot when it comes to my opposition to unnecessarily premature preventable deaths. I know these are particularly controversial and divisive opinions in this era, so to maintain a healthy debate, it’s only fair to give voice to the opposing view. NYT (Gift Article): The Disappearing Funds for Health. “In his first months in office, President Trump has slashed funding for medical research, threatening a longstanding alliance between the federal government and universities that helped make the United States the world leader in medical science. Some changes have been starkly visible, but the country’s medical grant-making machinery has also radically transformed outside the public eye.” (I’d say these policy choices were the product of a diseased mind, but we cut funding into the research of diseased minds, too.) “The impacts extend far beyond studies on politically disfavored topics and Ivy League universities like Columbia or Harvard. The disruptions are affecting research on Alzheimer’s, cancer and substance use, to name just a few, and studies at public institutions across the country, including in red states that backed Mr. Trump. ‘I think people should know that research that they probably would support is being canceled,’ said Eden Tanner, a chemist at the University of Mississippi who had been working with a colleague at Ohio State University to develop a novel approach for treating glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.” [Editor’s note: I also oppose aggressive brain cancer.) “‘I would like to cure brain cancer,’ Dr. Tanner said. ‘I think that’s not particularly controversial.'” (Apparently, Dr. Tanner knows a lot more about brain cancer than political controversies.)
