Martin Shkreli versus Jonas Salk
Martin Shkreli versus Jonas Salk
My critical mind comes to this guys "defence". Polio at the time and toxoplasmosis now are two very different beasts.
Jonas Salk undertook a project funded by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, a non profit; i.e. not funded by the government, but initiated by the President at the time ( Rosevelt ).
( The "National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis" became "the March of Dimes Foundation". )
It took $233 million 1955 dollars to kick polio. That's about 2 billion in today's dollars. I'm being conservative and assuming that all money spend on research was paid in 1955 dollars, at the end of the program, not amortized over the course of the program. ( ref: http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/result.php?year_source=1955&amount=233&year_result=2015 ). Martin Shkreli says ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrcj_4_k0Vc ) in his interview that toxoplasmosis is not getting the research funding that it needs. What if Obama started talking about toxoplasmosis ? Show me the federally funded programs to knock AIDs out of the park ?
So how much funding does toxoplasmosis get?
Circa Dec 2012 http://www.bc.edu/offices/pubaf/news/2012-nov-dec/American_Cancer_Society_Grant_for_BC_Research_of_Deadly_Parasite.html
.... 720,000 over 4 years. woop dee do.
Google "toxoplasmosis research funding" results in 289,000 hits.
The irony is that AIDS research often comes under combating "infant mortality" ... which is one of the march of dimes focus areas. Is anyone following what I'm getting at? Call march of dimes, tell them you want your donation to go towards toxoplasmosis, Martin Shkreli gets paid, babies get to live. Everybody wins.
Note: Make no misake Martin Shkreli is a bit of a dick. But let's not get tunnel vision and focus on that. Let's also look at the way we do things. It's not all him.
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We love villians; they focus our emotions, allow them to be predicted, controlled. Be suspicious of your villain.
