"Ebola Vaccine Would Likely Have Been Found By Now If Not For Budget Cuts: NIH Director"

[applegrove]

Ebola Vaccine Would Likely Have Been Found By Now If Not For Budget Cuts: NIH Director

by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/12/ebola-vaccine_n_5974148.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

"SNIP.........................



BETHESDA, Md. -- As the federal government frantically works to combat the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and as it responds to a second diagnosis of the disease at home, one of the country's top health officials says a vaccine likely would have already been discovered were it not for budget cuts.

Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, said that a decade of stagnant spending has "slowed down" research on all items, including vaccinations for infectious diseases. As a result, he said, the international community has been left playing catch-up on a potentially avoidable humanitarian catastrophe.

"NIH has been working on Ebola vaccines since 2001. It's not like we suddenly woke up and thought, 'Oh my gosh, we should have something ready here,'" Collins told The Huffington Post on Friday. "Frankly, if we had not gone through our 10-year slide in research support, we probably would have had a vaccine in time for this that would've gone through clinical trials and would have been ready."

It's not just the production of a vaccine that has been hampered by money shortfalls. Collins also said that some therapeutics to fight Ebola "were on a slower track than would've been ideal, or that would have happened if we had been on a stable research support trajectory."





...........................SNIP"

[Historic NY]

1. Thanks GOP,

ps who is our surgeon General Mr. Bohner?

[applegrove]

2. Yup. McCain just called for an ebola czar.... shouldn't that be the surgeon general?

[WhiteAndNerdy]

7. Good point. nt

[global1]

16. With The Nov Election Just Weeks Away - The Dems Should Make An Issue Of Not Getting The President's

pick for Surgeon General approved. It is the Repubs that are blocking that. Why aren't the Dems shouting that out on all the MSM news programs.

What are we waiting for - the Repubs to make an issue that because of Obamacare hospitals have cut back on infection prevention spending and cut back on staff to remain profitable. Are we waiting for them to go on the offensive.

If McCain called for an 'ebola czar' - turn it around on him and say - hey approve the President's Surgeon General.

[Tommymac]

23. Because neoliberals don't really want to let progressive populists take control of the party?

Welcome to the kabuki.

[global1]

30. Right - It's The President's Fault We Don't Have A Surgeon General Because....

he's picked someone that the Repubs don't like. Or is is because maybe anyone he picks won't be acceptable to them - because they are obstructing everything he does.

So let's just get the President to pick someone else - right. That will solve things. Do you detect the sarcasm in my response?

[dflprincess]

49. Do you really think they'd confirm anyone Obama nominated now?

And they'd turn it all around (with the help of MSM) and make it look like it was his fault there wasn't a SG in place already.

[dflprincess]

54. I agree

but there's no way they're going to approve one - no matter who Obama nominates and they'd just use a new nominee against him.

[YOHABLO]

55. It particularly was opposed by the NRA and Libertarian Rand Paul. Guns Guns Guns

They're going to take away our GUNS!!

[delete_bush]

31. Doing so would probably be a good way out of a

bad situation (i.e., the R's holding up the nomination).

My limited understanding of this is that there are also 10 D's who are not backing him. He's 36 years old and completed his residency a mere 8 years ago. It looks like he's done a lot of worthwhile things since then, but he's also been very politically active for Obama.

Obama could address the nation on Ebola, explain how the R's are holding up this critical position, and nominate someone else. We get a SG, the R's are embarrassed (if that's possible), and Mr. Murthy still has many productive years ahead of him.

[Cha]

3. Thank you, applegrove.. I just saw this on another site and was looking to see if it were here.

It's not just the production of a vaccine that has been hampered by money shortfalls. Collins also said that some therapeutics to fight Ebola "were on a slower track than would've been ideal, or that would have happened if we had been on a stable research support trajectory."

"We would have been a year or two ahead of where we are, which would have made all the difference," he said.

[burrowowl]

4. That's for Damn Sure!

Damn the Drug Companies and their profiteering from NIH and the Repukes cutting funding and, and .....

[adirondacker]

6. I heard a remark on NPR stating that if it was profitable, Big Pharma would have had the cure years

ago.

[RockaFowler]

41. The same for Cancer

Sickness is a big business

[redruddyred]

60. that should not surprise any fans of DU.

the profit margins on these drugs are obscene.

[davidn3600]

5. No guarantees. They haven't found a HIV vaccine either despite all the money and research

[mazzarro]

17. That is assuming that HIV research has been fully funded all along - which I doubt. -- n/t

[dbackjon]

28. But they do have a very effective therapies

[JI7]

46. not a cure, but they have been able to make it manageable

and people are able to live a very good life as long as they get the care .

[redruddyred]

59. HIV is no longer a death sentence

not too bad considering the severity of the illness and the challenges of retroviral therapy.

[Iliyah]

8. K & R

GOPers are to busy doing the bidding of their masters while the true Americans get less while "we" are paying the most in taxes. AIDs outbreak should have never went as far as it did. The negligent of higher ups ignored the potential devastation because in their eyes it dealt with "dark people" and "homosexuals". The monies still provides for research in AIDs which is important even to this date, same with Cancer.

The GOP house cut what Pres O requested monetary wise for Ebola, if the Senate Dems tried to request more, Senate GOPers would have blocked it and therefore the monies would have remained in limbo, because GOPers only care about self (1-2%ers) and no matter what, they have enough potential vaccines to save self and eff anyone else.

[Kablooie]

9. Don't worry. The private sector will take up the slack.

What do you mean they didn't do it?

...

Well, of course they didn't because Benghazi!
It's obvious.
All you have to do is apply a little cigol.

[kairos12]

12. Bush's Thousand Points of Blights.

[DrBulldog]

10. Some day in the future the historians will tally up all the lives ruined and destroyed ...

... - and all the myriad ways it was done - by the Republican Party of the United States, 1981-2017.

[kairos12]

11. Austerity Land is where we reside courtesy of Republi-cons.

They will wake up only when they realize ebola doesn't respect gated communities and private security.

[dflprincess]

50. They'll find out that being the ruling class in a third world country - which is where they've been

trying to take us - isn't all they thought it would be.

[young_at_heart]

13. If you have a heart and a conscience you won't vote for any Republican

They simply don't care about anything other than their own interests!

[kairos12]

56. Agree 1000 percent.

[ReRe]

14. But, but, but....

.... GWB's wars. Wars are more important than research for antibiotics and serums to treat such things as the super bug and mere ebola. USA! USA! USA!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. Everyone forgets the sequester.

[Hugin]

22. Which is still in full effect... BTW.

Yep, the shutdown smokescreen worked perfectly.

[johnnyreb]

18. Why should I pay fer mah neighbor's contagion!

(chaw, spit, twang!)

[Turbineguy]

19. Diseases and Terrorists

the republican's best friends.

[goldent]

20. I think he was wrong to say that.

Medical research has a spotty record at producing results.

[WillyT]

21. K & R !!!

[Avalux]

24. I hate that they have to use Ebola as an example - been a problem for a long time.

Infectious Diseases research in general has been grossly underfunded....depending on for profit big pharma to develop anti-infectives only leaves us at risk for falling behind to where we are unable to stop the tiny little organisms that invade and consume human bodies. However that's what's happened, and as a result we are way behind the curve.

It's been decades and decades since penicillin and vaccination discoveries....we should be better prepared. Ebola is the canary in the coal mine and we need to take heed.

[redruddyred]

58. that's because SCOTUS thinks microbes are intellectual property

actually it's a trend which started in the 80s but we are seeing the effects of it now in epidemics such as lyme, ebola, drug-resistant tb.

[heaven05]

25. huh???

Last edited Mon Oct 13, 2014, 01:56 PM - Edit history (1)

what about the people that got infected(volunteers) and were flown back to america and were cured by some 'experimental' vaccine? I'm sure I read about that somewhere. Can't find it though. Been removed from search engines.

[HockeyMom]

37. Yes, they do with something they don't want you to see

Internet isn't controlled? Seen that happen. I bookmarked an old typewriter typed report (photocopy) from a 60s study of mutated strain of measles. Went back to get it several times but got 404 Error Message.

[heaven05]

39. Yeah, well I remember all the CT's

about HIV and I always knew that if you smell smoke, there is a fire somewhere. No matter how well hidden.

[applegrove]

38. They only had limited amounts of that treatment.

[TomCADem]

26. Extreme Right Had Been Claiming Ebola Is A False Flag Operation...

...from several months ago, so that is their ready answer.

[randome]

32. Keep hammering home the Sequester and the government shutdown. It's all on the GOP's hands.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Aspire to inspire.[/center][/font][hr]

[blackspade]

33. Thanks Rethuglicants!

Each American Ebola death is on you (as well as Africans who would have had access to the vaccine as well)!

[joeglow3]

34. Sorry, but I am skeptical

You know what they say: "Never let a good tragedy go to waste."

[valerief]

36. You stole that from "The Disruptors Handbook," didn't you? nt

[valerief]

35. "Yeah, but our guys let us have our guns!!!! Wahoo!!!!

"Ain't nothin' more important than having guns!!!!"

[B2G]

42. Let's pretend they had double the budget

Ebola had only killed 1582 people in total until now...since 1976.

I have no reason to believe it would have been a priority for them. In fact it strains the imagination to believe it would have been.

[blkmusclmachine]

43. Lay it right at the GOP's door. Right where it belongs.

[Kingofalldems]

44. Kick this for the GOP crew.

[HereSince1628]

45. So it's grist for the political mill...meh!

AMONG AMERICANS with nothing to gain by politicizing but wanting control over a very frightening virus, who the fuck cares?

[grahamhgreen]

47. Disagree. This is exactly why we need to raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for programs that protect

us all.

[DrBulldog]

48. Now it has turned out to be a race between the spreading of ebola and ...

... the widespread incompetence of the Texas hospital system.

[AllyCat]

51. F$ckin' Republicans

[BeyondGeography]

52. Republicans are such miserable fucks at heart

eom

[Hekate]

57. About damn time someone said this.

[kelliekat44]

61. I call a little BS on this too.

You have to look at where NIH and Pharmaceutical companies put their priorities. NIH has plenty of money but politics enters into the equation there also. The high visibility diseases...cancer, heart, get the bulk of the funding because that's what congress wants and pharmaceutical companies, ever mindful of their profit motive, cater their drug research to where they will get the most consumers. They have funds to perform the research for vaccines for Ebola...they just don't think enough people suffer from the disease to make a huge profit. And big Pharma wants the NIH to fund and fund the basic research and then they will step in, license the drugs, and charge the consumers an arm and a leg for something that essentially was mostly funded by taxpayer money in the first place. AND you better believe that many NIH officials and researchers have stocks in all those big Pharma companies. The system stinks from the top to the bottom...the bottom being your medical specialist who also has stock in the companies whose pills they push.

It's really complicated they way it works. But the way it SHOULD work is simple.

[applegrove]

62. Canada found a researcher in Europe who wanted to do great

work on ebola. They hired him. He moved to Winnipeg and ran the research at a government lab. They are now testing that vaccine on Americans.....no chance of getting ebola while you're on it. But that is how public health works. The market would never have tried for a vaccine for a virus that up to then had only affected a few thousand people in poor rural areas in Africa. It needed nonmarket thinking to come to pass.

[ctaylors6]

63. here's a story ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2014/10/15/the-absurd-claim-that-only-republicans-are-to-blame-for-cuts-to-ebola-research/

[Raine]

64. Agree. nt