Proposed cuts to NIH budget

This is not a political point of view but rather one of common decency. Maybe because I am old but I have almost given up on understanding American priorities.

The entire U.S. budget for cancer research at NIH's National Cancer Institute is $4.78 billion. That’s for every type of cancer (and there are hundreds). This budget covers clinical research on new treatments, long-term research on understanding cancer, and everything in between. The budget for heart, lung and blood disease (the number 1 and 4 causes of death) is even smaller, just $2.90 billion.

These numbers are little more than round-off errors when compared to the entire U.S. budget, which for 2013 is $3,454 billion. The NCI budget is just 0.14% of the total.

How much should we invest in cures for all disease each year? How about 5% of our budget? Or maybe just 2%? That doesn’t seem like too much. Ask anyone who has cancer, or who knows someone with cancer, if 2% of the budget is too much to invest in cures. I suspect that most of them will say it’s not nearly enough.

2% of the federal budget is $69 billion. Let's use our tax dollars to build new things and make new discoveries. Let’s invest in our future, and create new treatments that make our lives longer and healthier.

In the current issue of The Atlantic, James Fallows interviewed Eric Lander, one of the world's leading genome scientists, and asked him when genomics would lead to a cure for cancer. Lander responded:

“If we invest vigorously in this and we attract the best young people into this field, we get it done in a generation. If we don’t, it takes two generations. That’s a very big difference.”

Think about it. If we invest more now, you might see a cure for most forms of cancer in your lifetime. Two generations, though, will be far too late for most of us. How many more people need to die from cancers that we’ll eventually be able to cure?

www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2013/12/29/which-is-more-important-military-drones-or-a-cure-for-cancer/#10e609d47c86