Last year, the American people spent $1 billion on microwave popcorn, and the $8.4 billion in annual sales of home computers exceeded the $8 billion in annual sales of television sets for the first time. Earlier this year the National Institutes of Health budget was rescued from the anti-science Congress of the United States.
If the world is to be seen only through the "gauzy filter" of culture, then let us test the consequences of that approach. The committee should recommend that we stop all research on AIDS until society deems it a real event. In that we spend nearly six times as much on TV and popcorn as we do on AIDS research, it is clear where our priorities are now.
Micromanaging the $1.4 billion will lead to some improvements, but doesn't address the central issue. The medical metaphor is dead. Congress and the public either don't care or ...
