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G8 Adopts Bush's Plan To Speed HIV Vaccine

wdlove

wdlove

macrumors P6
Original poster
Oct 20, 2002
16,568
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$15 Million Plan Would Set Up Development Centers Worldwide


SAVANNAH, Ga. -- The Bush administration won backing from major allies for a proposal to accelerate development of an HIV vaccine, and President George W. Bush on Thursday proposed spending $15 million to launch it.

The $15 million would gather people together at a yet-to-be determined medical center in the United States to advance vaccine research, said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health.

Group of Eight countries meeting at an economic summit this week in Sea Island adopted Bush's plan for a "Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise" -- a blueprint for speeding up development of a vaccine. The plan, Fauci said, would:

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/health/3403870/detail.html?treets=bos&tml=bos_health&ts=T&tmi=bos_health_1_12150006102004
 
$15 million won't go far - especially if you want it tested and approved properly. It costs hundreds of millions of dollars to get a new drug to market. This is just political gesturing...
 
caveman_uk said:
$15 million won't go far - especially if you want it tested and approved properly. It costs hundreds of millions of dollars to get a new drug to market. This is just political gesturing...
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No ones ever happy. :rolleyes:

I see this is a great thing, very positive move.
 
dopefiend said:
No ones ever happy. :rolleyes:

I see this is a great thing, very positive move.
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$15 million....and how much is the US spending in Iraq every day? If Bush and the rest of the G8 really gave a damn they'd put a bit more than $15 million in. It's peanuts.
 
dopefiend said:
No ones ever happy. :rolleyes:

I see this is a great thing, very positive move.
Click to expand...

A positive, yet weak first step...

Maybe they should have Haliburton pay for with their overcharges and excess profits from their no-bid contract...
 
It's a nice signal that maybe Bush isn't so anti-homosexual that he can be seen as providing a pittance toward the effort to stop AIDS. I know - and you know - that it's primarily a heterosexual disease, and horrific in Africa, but politicians seem to have a problem with giving money to a "dirty" disease. Much easier to fund lung cancer research to clean up after the tobacco companies they're so friendly with.

It is sad that even Bill Gates has helped more in this area. Well, no, I guess it's good that Billy has provided so much help. Just sad that the G8 provides less than their conference cost to help fight a disease afflicting so many.

Still, perhaps, it is the start of something better. All of the "Remember Ronnie" stuff in the news just makes me think of how he thwarted early research in the area because he didn't want to offend the "Moral Majority".
 
jsw said:
It's a nice signal that maybe Bush isn't so anti-homosexual that he can be seen as providing a pittance toward the effort to stop AIDS. I know - and you know - that it's primarily a heterosexual disease, and horrific in Africa, but politicians seem to have a problem with giving money to a "dirty" disease. Much easier to fund lung cancer research to clean up after the tobacco companies they're so friendly with.

It is sad that even Bill Gates has helped more in this area. Well, no, I guess it's good that Billy has provided so much help. Just sad that the G8 provides less than their conference cost to help fight a disease afflicting so many.

Still, perhaps, it is the start of something better. All of the "Remember Ronnie" stuff in the news just makes me think of how he thwarted early research in the area because he didn't want to offend the "Moral Majority".
Click to expand...

Yes, it took "hero" Reagan 4 to 5 years to admit a problem. Only after 20k+ deaths, and AIDS had started to cross over in to the heterosexual community.

Today the government points to $14.7 billion being spent on AIDS. The truth is that 52% of that is spent on care of those with AIDS. The remaining 48% is spent on care, prevention, research, and world AIDS programs.

How much money could have been saved if the US as the "great protector" of the world had taken its collective head out of the sand and attacked the problem head on?
 
There may well be cases of viruses for which there is no cure, no vaccine. Just because we throw money and resources at it, doesn't mean it can be done. We're just assuming it can, but we're really ignorant about the chance of success.

Would people be all geared up if he pledged $800 zillion dollars to find the end of pi? Yes! We can do it! Let's finally get to the end of this number!!

Let's hope this money does some real good with some real science.
 
jayscheuerle said:
There may well be cases of viruses for which there is no cure, no vaccine. Just because we throw money and resources at it, doesn't mean it can be done. We're just assuming it can, but we're really ignorant about the chance of success.

Would people be all geared up if he pledged $800 zillion dollars to find the end of pi? Yes! We can do it! Let's finally get to the end of this number!!

Let's hope this money does some real good with some real science.
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Right you are, but can you imagine just how much healthier the world would be if we dedicated as many resources to medicine as we do to war? And maybe an opt-in healthcare system for those that have no affordable access to decent healthcare.

In judging the real strength of a nation, it should be judged on how well it takes care of the real need of its citizens.

BTW - hope all is well at home....
 
jayscheuerle said:
There may well be cases of viruses for which there is no cure, no vaccine. Just because we throw money and resources at it, doesn't mean it can be done. We're just assuming it can, but we're really ignorant about the chance of success.

Would people be all geared up if he pledged $800 zillion dollars to find the end of pi? Yes! We can do it! Let's finally get to the end of this number!!

Let's hope this money does some real good with some real science.
Click to expand...

Well, they now do have an algorithm for calculating any digit of pi, so I guess that $800 zillion can go to other causes now. :)

Granted, we don't know if there is a cure to this or any other currently uncured illness. Of course, without looking, we'll never find out. Perhaps, even if there's no cure for this, other advances to cure similar diseases will be made.

I'm not saying we should drain the nation's economy to finance AIDS research. I'm just saying $15M isn't going to help very much.
 
I think that this is a good first step. The effort has to start somewhere. At least there is an agreement among the G8 nations.
 
MacRumorSkeptic said:
Where's the constitutional authority for this?! Its not the federal governments job to research or find cure's for disease.
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It's not denied to them by the constitution, either. I suppose expensive research for the good of the public should be undertaken by the states?
 
It's in the Declaration of Independence..

MacRumorSkeptic said:
Where's the constitutional authority for this?! Its not the federal governments job to research or find cure's for disease.
Click to expand...

The government is to "provide for the common defence"... I believe it's not a big stretch to say that common defence includes defence against a virus, bacteria, bark beatle, and other health and safety problems.. It falls under the same authority that grants the Feds the right to have federal police or a federal army. Be they policing people or combating infectious agents.. The Centers for Disease Control is fully federal funded. They are operating under the same authority and mandate.

I think donating tax money to Planned Parenthood is far more questionable than to found a scientific agency for eliminating a particular problematic virus. I'd also note that research into the various strains of HIV has brought several life-saving advances to other areas of medical research, particularly in the areas of retroviruses and cancer.
 
wdlove said:
$15 Million Plan Would Set Up Development Centers Worldwide


SAVANNAH, Ga. -- The Bush administration won backing from major allies for a proposal to accelerate development of an HIV vaccine, and President George W. Bush on Thursday proposed spending $15 million to launch it.

The $15 million would gather people together at a yet-to-be determined medical center in the United States to advance vaccine research, said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health.

Group of Eight countries meeting at an economic summit this week in Sea Island adopted Bush's plan for a "Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise" -- a blueprint for speeding up development of a vaccine. The plan, Fauci said, would:

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/health/3403870/detail.html?treets=bos&tml=bos_health&ts=T&tmi=bos_health_1_12150006102004
Click to expand...

now this is just sick, i have two problems with this...

(1) $15 million is going to do essentially nothing for developing a vaccine for a virus like HIV/AIDS

and (2) there is no way that they are going to come up with a vaccine. the virus has been around for millions of years and knows how to adapt to basically anything. im not sure if you people know this but at one point years ago there was a vaccine for HIV/AIDS, it became widely used (in the US), and three years later had absolutely no effect on the virus. for anyone who had the disease and took the drug they got rid of the disease for a short amount of time, but when the drug wore off the disease returned stronger than before.

the only way they are ever going to remove the problem is by prevention
 
MacRumorSkeptic said:
Where's the constitutional authority for this?! Its not the federal governments job to research or find cure's for disease.
Click to expand...

Same could be said where is the Constitutional authority to use the CIA to create and prop up puppet governments across the world? Or to give away it' citizens money as foreign aid. Or to pay farmers not to farm. Or to help build highways and transit systems. Or as grants or incentives to private industry.
 
aplasticspork said:
now this is just sick, i have two problems with this...

(1) $15 million is going to do essentially nothing for developing a vaccine for a virus like HIV/AIDS
Click to expand...

And the funny thing is in the end we will find out that this is not new money, but money that is being moved from another AIDS earmarked program.

aplasticspork said:
and (2) there is no way that they are going to come up with a vaccine. the virus has been around for millions of years and knows how to adapt to basically anything. im not sure if you people know this but at one point years ago there was a vaccine for HIV/AIDS, it became widely used (in the US), and three years later had absolutely no effect on the virus. for anyone who had the disease and took the drug they got rid of the disease for a short amount of time, but when the drug wore off the disease returned stronger than before.

the only way they are ever going to remove the problem is by prevention
Click to expand...

The same was said about Polio. You are right that the virus proves to be a moving target, yet I would like to see the reference that the HIV virus has been around a million years.

Again you are right about prevention, but there are cultural and social reasons that prevention will never succeed world wide.

Does this mean that we should give up? No. It does mean that we should provide the scientists with the resources that they need.
 
Chip NoVaMac said:
The same was said about Polio. You are right that the virus proves to be a moving target, yet I would like to see the reference that the HIV virus has been around a million years.

Again you are right about prevention, but there are cultural and social reasons that prevention will never succeed world wide.

Does this mean that we should give up? No. It does mean that we should provide the scientists with the resources that they need.
Click to expand...

the disease has not been around in humans for millions of years, (less than 100 years in humans) but has existed in other species for millions of years.

i know that the same was said about polio, i hope im wrong but unfortunately i doubt it, i do have a lot of knowledge on the disease.

i know that prevention would be difficult worldwide but it needs to be tried.

this does not mean we need to give up but people need to stop obsessing about a vaccine, most people actually have. ever since the 80's every international AIDS conference has been focusing on prevention instead of a vaccine and the way i see it is thousands of scientists who get together every 2 years most likely wouldnt be wrong

again its possible that they would have been wrong but the data supports them.
 
While 15 million doesn't seem to me like a lot either, I won't begrudge the government anything until I know what the other 7 countries contributed...
Anyone know?
 
aplasticspork said:
the disease has not been around in humans for millions of years, (less than 100 years in humans) but has existed in other species for millions of years.
Click to expand...

If you could provide a link to this data, I would be interested in reading more on it.
 
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