Scientists, doctors, and researchers have been sounding this alarm for some time, but I’ve never seen the message delivered so directly or savagely.
The Agenda Project just released a new ad “Republican Cuts Kill.” It links cuts to budgets at the National Institutes for Health and the Centers for Disease Control to the spread of Ebola. Why isn’t there a vaccine for Ebola? Lack of investment from governments and private companies. Why hasn’t the public health response been better? Flat budgets for more than a decade and the recent hit from sequestration.
The video is very clever. You see a string of Republican leaders – Rick Perry, Sarah Palin, Mitch McConnell, and Marsha Blackburn among them – saying, “Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut,” paired with public health leaders explaining the effect of slashing R&D budgets in the federal government.
The CDC’s Thomas Frieden said his organization has lost $585 million since 2010 and Dr. Anthony Fauci of the NIH said the institutes have lost $446 million.
The group launched the ad in Kentucky where Sen. Mitch McConnell is running against Alison Lundergan Grimes in one of the very close races that could determine control of the Senate.
The Agenda Project is a liberal group that describes its work this way:
Between out-dated political parties, self-interested multi-national corporations, and ineffectual elected officials, good values and common sense have lost their power in the public debate. Our goal is to return normal Americans to the center of the policy debate by cultivating an understanding of public policy, facilitating common action, and connecting the best ideas and the strongest leaders with engaged citizens, elected officials, the media, political insiders, and experts through a variety of in-person and on-line platforms.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
