At the end of the article, they throw in the “, but…” remark. It’s easy to get caught up in the wonder of the science and innovation, however we can’t forget medicine is more politics than anything. In the US, these wonder drugs for cancer, HIV, etc. are easy to come by if you lived by a major tertiary or quaternary care center. Many Americans are in rural areas, where the local clinic or hospital can only provide preventative or stabilizing care, and they may not even have a physician, it may be a NP or PA, or even an EMS service that can transport them a town over to the ER.
As the article says, our innovation is great, but we cannot forget to improve our infrastructure to prevent disparities in access to them that often occur in rural areas and among the poor and minority groups.
I would argue that medicine is science, but the access to said medicine is politics. Even if you live near a tertiary or quaternary care center, many of these ‘wonder’ drugs are barred from use by most people due to insurance issues. The fact of the matter is that in the US, not only is where you live a contributor to a lack of access to care (which is also the case in many countries), but how much you make is a major factor as well. While a complete overhaul of the healthcare system may not be realistic, we are definitely not going in the right direction.
The thing it misses is that public health, preventative care, healthy environment, and living far out way any of these impacts. Then there is the question of who can afford this stuff which reduces its impact.
“Eating less and exercising more” isn’t sexy enough to make Mr. CEO a juicy profit.
Hey, thanks for sharing this! This was a really cool article and is definitely good news