You miss the point. The NIH is an inefficient government bureaucratic that has failed in its mission related to health.
Hope thatâs snark; NIH research has brought us virtually every major medical advance of the last century. Again, they do basic research: they donât distribute anti-retrovirals in Africa, but we wouldnât have anti-retrovirals without them.
3 Likes
Well, obvious Fox News should be barred from any Presidential Debates. Fair is fair after all. (wry grin)
Beat me to it.
Seriously? How so?
Not really. Donât believe the NIH propaganda and drink their Kool-Aid. The NIH intramural program is excellent but the extramural program is a mess.
The NIH had nothing to do with the discovery of HIV, the discovery of reverse transcriptase inhibitors or the protease inhibitors that revolutionized HIV treatment. Even the much ballyhooed sequencing of the human genome was done first by Craig Venterâs group. The great folks at the NIH did not fund Craig Venterâs research. Howâs that for a track record?
Have you looked at the pace of drug discovery lately? It has fallen off a cliff. All this despite all of the developments in technology, combinatorial and computational chemistry, the human genome project and billions of dollars of taxpayer funding. The clinical research infrastructure in the USA is in complete shambles due to the misguided NIH policies and mismanagement.
Take a good look at what the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations and the Clinton Foundation have achieved with the research funding programs. It is really remarkable. They have taken on very difficult health problems and had impact.
The National Science Foundation, has a small fraction of the NIHâs huge budget but covers all of the remaining physical, chemical, economic and social sciences. It has funded more investigators and had a substantially more positive impact on American society and well being than the NIH.
Have you looked at the pace of the NIHâs funding lately? It too has fallen off a cliff; they can now fund only half the research grants they could before W, and even thatâs stretching their financial capabilities. Of course there have also been great private contributions, but if you genuinely think private research could replace public research with no cost â in medical advances, in Americansâ good fortune in generally being the first to reap the benefit of those advances, or in the economic growth that is a byproduct of those advances â youâre as delusional as the wingers who think private charity can replace the public safety net.
1 Like
I am not arguing that charity can replace government funded research. The funding that the NIH gets is many-fold greater than the NSF. Its dysfunction has little to do with the budget cuts.
The NIH extramural program is completely broken and dysfunctional. It has the wrong priorities, poor management, terrible organizational structure and chases after fads, factory-made, assembly line, mickey mouse research. Its extramural program needs to disbanded and reformed with a brand new, well thought through organizational structure and leadership. Until this happens the NIH is a feel good sinkhole for flushing taxpayer money.