to me not that long ago(think ugly, messy death in most cases). I've sat at times and wondered how someone working at a pharmaceutical company feels when some asshole politician accuses them of all kinds of naughtiness ' just so you can make money'; never mind the years of time and literally God-knows-how-many man-hours of research and testing that went into creating that drug, that doesn't count when the grandstanding politician(all too often 'corrupt' and 'stupid' also fit) wants to play "I feel your pain."
Geek posted some thoughts on the matter. Here's a sample:
One of my kids has had pneumonia twice. One hundred years ago, when such a diagnosis in a child was a virtual death sentence, what would I have paid then for the bottle of pink bubble gum flavored antibiotic goo we give kids today? I'd have mortgaged the house and gone into debt, if need be. How many bottles of pink bubble gum flavored antibiotic goo had I slugged down as a kid, vanquishing one potentially fatal disease after another?
It's not just another abstract life saved from dying horribly of Stupid Shit (r)(c)(tm). It's my very concrete life saved from dying horribly of Stupid Shit. It's my wife and kids saved from dying horribly of Stupid Shit. It's the misery of any of us losing any of the others that is avoided.
No, these cures were not shat from the sky like manna. They did not come from government largess, nor did they come from some central agency responsible for the discovery and distribution of cures. Such things have been tried, and they've all failed, miserably. Not only do they not generate new cures, but they cannot even effectively distribute old ones.
Read it when you can. And next time someone bitches about "Why do drugs cost less in Canada/Mexico/wherever? It's the greedy companies ripping us off!", kick them somewhere sensitive. Like in the ass, where their brain resides.
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