Monday, January 6, 2014

Preventing Progress



By Jeff Simpson

As a cancer survivor, I found this article in th NY Times very interesting!


The newest cancer report, which came out in mid-December, put the best possible face on things. If one accounts for the advancing age of the population — with the graying of the baby boomers, death itself is on the rise — cancer mortality has actually been decreasing bit by bit in recent decades. But the decline has been modest compared with other threats. 

A graph from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells the story. There are two lines representing the age-adjusted mortality rate from heart disease and from cancer. In 1958 when the diagram begins, the line for heart disease is decisively on top. But it plunges by 68 percent while cancer declines so slowly — by only about 10 percent — that the slope appears far less significant.

The political observer in me found this part of the article the most interesting:


OVER all, the most encouraging gains are coming from prevention. Worldwide, some 15 to 20 percent of cancers are believed to be caused by infectious agents. With improvements in refrigeration and public sanitation, stomach cancer, which is linked to Helicobacter pylori bacteria, has been significantly reduced, especially in more developed parts of the world. Vaccines against human papilloma virus have the potential of nearly eliminating cervical cancer

Where antismoking campaigns are successful, lung cancer, which has accounted for almost 30 percent of cancer deaths in the United States, is steadily diminishing. More progress can be made with improvements in screening and by reducing the incidence of obesity, a metabolic imbalance that, along with diabetes, gives cancer an edge.
Let's see improvements in prevention have significantly lowered cancer, yet our friends on the right(especially the tea party) have seriously and recently, fought every single one of these preventions!  From

*   People having refrigeration;

The human papilloma virus vaccine;

The public Smoking ban;

*  The efforts to curb obesity in America, especially childhood obesity. 

So technically it is true that the republicans would oppose President Obama if he came up with a cure for cancer!  

Tell me why people vote republican again?




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