In 1800, around 50% of all children born did not see their fifth anniversary. More than 200 years of science and advancement later, this number is less than 1%. Science saves lives – that is why attempts to cut it are so appalling.
Today, researchers work hard in thousands of laboratories across the country. They work for you – so that the next time you go to the doctor, your doctor can help you.
Whether new treatments for emerging infectious diseases or innovative ways to deal with things that have suffered from humans since dawn – like cancer and heart disease – these researchers are working to find answers to diseases that make thousands of lives. Diseases that you may have one day.
Their work is in danger. Recent financing discounts have worried laboratories across the country. The National Institutes of Health, which finance the majority of laboratories in universities, has recently made drastic modifications to funding that will make it impossible for certain laboratories. Worse, scientists reported that meetings to examine their financing requests have been canceled, leaving their funding in the limbo.
What would happen if we stop this progress? First of all, we stop moving forward. We have made enormous progress in important questions that we must continue to make. Since 1990, recent medical advances have saved around 200,000 children in the United States only. There is even more work to be done, however – infant mortality remains higher in the United States than in other highly developed countries.
We must continue to move forward.
Second, and maybe worse, we would start going back. New strains of bacteria resistant to all the drugs we use to treat them (supposedly “superbaceae”) are becoming more and more widespread. Some scientists fear that you can get a cutting of paper, the injury could be infected with resistant bacteria, and there would be nothing to do to heal it. We could go to a world where an adult in good health could die of equality – just like before penicillin. Scientists estimate that in 2050, 39 million people will die From a resistant antibiotic infection.
In this world that requires new medical solutions to difficult challenges, the United States could choose to be a leader. Becoming a leader in this is not the expensive investment that some people believe. For each dollar invested in medical research, there is $ 1.24 saved In the cost of health care and more than two dollars of economic activity created. Financial problems are always a concern, but not finance research means that the government will pay more in health care cost and will make it possible to collect less taxes.
Funding for medical research is not only amoral for lost life; They also have no financial sense.
The large financing cuts being taken into account, it is important that we look back and see how things were and to what extent medical science took us. Research was one of the best investments that the United States has ever made, and we should never forget it.
Logan Suit is a native of Tampa and a doctorate. Staphylococcus aureus resistant antibiotic student candidate.