2 ms·

Imagine a nationwide US gov research program that collects DNA for the purposes of prescription drug research. They'd be storming the capital again, no matter

Imagine a nationwide US gov research program that collects DNA for the purposes of prescription drug research. They'd be storming the capital again, no matter how much good it can do. Now imagine we had to raise taxes to support it. Preposterous! Communism! Instead a company was founded on the promise of providing a useful product to both consumers and producers. Let them get rich, I'm pretty sure this is a net win for all parties.

white_dragon88 3y ago
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diggan 3y ago
> Imagine a nationwide US gov research program that collects DNA for the purposes of prescription drug research. It's not unprecedented in other parts of the world. Almost every single person born after 1975 in Sweden is a part of the PKU-registry whose usage is encoded in Swedish law: > On July 1, 2023, a new Biobank Act came into force (Act 2023:38). The Act specifies the purposes for which PKU samples may be stored: medical care and diagnostics, epidemiological studies, monitoring and quality assurance of operations, and clinical research and development. The promise was always that police would never be able to use it for lookups. Unsurprisingly, the police has been trying to get access to it since inception. I'm not sure how useful it's been though, I don't think I've come across anything major that has been solved via the registry, but then I'm not heavily in biology and related areas, so maybe that's just my ignorance.
- jvanderbot 3y ago
  I agree wholeheartedly that other countries have implemented programs and general laws that the US should do, but am leaning on the general US sentiment that we're somehow different and should do everything (seemingly) the hard way. In this case, however, 23andMe seems like the "easy way" since it's paying for itself and is opt-in.
ImaCake 3y ago
The USA does have a publicly funded genetic biobank mostly of US veterans. Its somewhat notorious in the research community for being difficult to gain access to. The UK biobank or the myriad other national biobanks are generally pay to use for researchers and are anonymous.

white_dragon88 3y ago

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diggan 3y ago

> Imagine a nationwide US gov research program that collects DNA for the purposes of prescription drug research. It's not unprecedented in other parts of the world. Almost every single person born after 1975 in Sweden is a part of the PKU-registry whose usage is encoded in Swedish law: > On July 1, 2023, a new Biobank Act came into force (Act 2023:38). The Act specifies the purposes for which PKU samples may be stored: medical care and diagnostics, epidemiological studies, monitoring and quality assurance of operations, and clinical research and development. The promise was always that police would never be able to use it for lookups. Unsurprisingly, the police has been trying to get access to it since inception. I'm not sure how useful it's been though, I don't think I've come across anything major that has been solved via the registry, but then I'm not heavily in biology and related areas, so maybe that's just my ignorance.

jvanderbot 3y ago
I agree wholeheartedly that other countries have implemented programs and general laws that the US should do, but am leaning on the general US sentiment that we're somehow different and should do everything (seemingly) the hard way. In this case, however, 23andMe seems like the "easy way" since it's paying for itself and is opt-in.

ImaCake 3y ago

The USA does have a publicly funded genetic biobank mostly of US veterans. Its somewhat notorious in the research community for being difficult to gain access to. The UK biobank or the myriad other national biobanks are generally pay to use for researchers and are anonymous.