3 ms·
> 1.6 whole months! Of additional life on chemo! Will the miracles ever cease? /s Thing is, as a species we got a lot of the old killers tackled that held back
by mschuster91 3y ago
> 1.6 whole months! Of additional life on chemo! Will the miracles ever cease? /s
Thing is, as a species we got a lot of the old killers tackled that held back human lifetime expectancy rates for milennia - illnesses that used to decimate or even wipe out entire populations got stopped by vaccines, antibiotics and sanitation measures, workplace injuries by OSHA and friends as well as automation, transportation of all kind by (very) strict regulations, drug consumption-associated diseases (cancer, liver failure) by taxes and banning ads. Or basically, we've long since flown by the 80% pareto mark of stuff that killed people before they reached retirement.
Now, we have to deal with the hard stuff, that only shows up since people live long enough to experience it... cancers of all kind, the various forms of dementia (and these are nasty, I'd wager even worse than cancer!), retinal degradation, or bones getting brittle - many old but fit people tend to make a serious downturn after breaking a hip or whatnot from an unlucky fall and never recover from that.
And unfortunately, that takes time, and progress only comes in very slow increment.
- hello_computer 3y agoAnyone who is familiar with the numbers knows that "sanitation measures" were more effective than all of the other interventions you listed combined. But I didn't criticize sanitation, or vaccines, or any of the other things mentioned. I criticized chemotherapy. If you're excited about the prospect of zeroing-out the estate and suffering for an extra month or two to be a martyr for science, that is your business. When I read articles like this poorly disguised pharma PR piece, all that comes to my mind is, "Don't piss on my head and tell me it's raining." It is that bad.
- mschuster91 3y agoThing is, on the way to eventually make cancer a treatable disease we will have to endure a few decades worth of extremely small steps. Maybe less, if BioNTech's mRNA bet actually goes through, but that's far from a given.
- hello_computer 3y agoThat is all PR. None of this is the slow steady march of science. It is commerce. Blow smoke up enough asses, scam it through the FDA, profit, and be sure to have the next "breakthrough" ready before the last one is reassessed and exposed for the p-hacked con-job that it was. Many editors of the top journals resigned over this a long time ago, and will complain at length to anyone who will listen.