Ahhh, to be politically and socially correct. Must be nice.

New Medicine for AIDS Is One Pill, Once a Day
By ANDREW POLLACK

The first complete treatment for AIDS that is taken once a day as a single pill is expected to be available soon.

"Going down to one pill a day is amazing," said Keith Folger of Washington, who started on 36 pills a day about 11 years ago and expects to switch to the new pill when it becomes available.

The companies...have suggested it will cost roughly the same as Sustiva and Truvada bought separately, which is about $1,200 a month.

The drugs in the new pill already constitute the most widely prescribed regimen in the United States and one of the most effective.

The vast majority of the nearly 40 million people in the world infected by H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, are in developing nations. In the United States there are about 1.1 million.

The government was trying to encourage development of simpler pills as part of the president's plan to provide antiviral treatments to poor countries. The next month, the three companies announced their plan.

Still, he said, "For some people it's just what they need to make treatment doable." A single pill may also mean a single insurance co-payment, he said, instead of two or three now that can cost people $100 a month.

Dr. Cohen...said there was already some concern among AIDS experts that having a once-a-day treatment would make people lose their fear of H.I.V. "We still want people to respect that prevention of the disease is better than treatment," he said.

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That last paragraph is the only one that comes close to resembling what you would read in an article attacking smoking (safer cigarettes may cause people to smoke = "once-a-day treatment would make people lose their fear of H.I.V." )

Notice I said attacking. That's because when it comes to smoking, taking "36 pills a day [for] about 11 years" would be treated with scorn and hate. Spending "about $1,200 a month" to stay alive because of a behavior choice (in most cases) would be a rallying cry to surround smokers and stone them.

Having to co-pay only $100 a month of that bill would yield, "You're making my insurance premuims go up you filthy smokers".

There wasn't anything in this article even remotely like that even those the costs mentioned here are far higher.

$1,200 a month = $14,400 a year...just to avoid AIDS. The most recent scare number I've seen for smokers is $86 billion in healthcare costs. How does that compare?

Because half of the lung cancer deaths are in former smokers I'm going to assume half of all smoking-related deaths are in former smokers. Are they? I don't know.

The latest figure I've seen says that 26% of the US population uses smokeless tobacco, or smokes cigarettes, cigars or a pipe. After subtracting those under 18 I arrive at 60 million current tobacco users. Doubling that number should approximate the number of current and former tobacco customers alive today. That's 120 million. However, because I'm guessing I'll reduce my estimate down to 100 million.

100 million persons imposing an 86 billion dollar cost averages out to $860 a year per person. That doesn't come anywhere close to $14,400. It's almost 17 times less.

I haven't even discussed the sin taxes that tobacco users are forced to pay. Nor the increased insurance premiums. Nor have I tried to figure in the costs when an AIDS patient gets sick and/or dies. That's already included in the smokers' cost. That $14,400 is just for a pill to ward off AIDS. It doesn't include hospital visits or treatments for whatever illnesses they may aquire before the end.

You'll also notice the president has taken an interest in this...in other countries no less.

What I'm pointing out isn't that there's a class of citizens more deserving of scorn and ridicule and hate than smokers because I don't think either group deserves it. If you don't like paying for other people's lifestyle choices, find an insurance carrier that covers people only like you.

What I'm trying to point out is the bias in the press. There's no venon in that article. No pointing fingers. No "Hang the %$#^% bastards". No, because this article wasn't about smokers.

This is just one article, but it tells me a whole lot.

quote:

This is just one article, but it tells me a whole lot.

That one line sums it all up very nicely Squeezer. And you are correct about the lack of venom in the article because it is not about smoking.

within the past few weeks Delaware joined the bandwangon and started a pilot program for needle exchanges for heroin and other illicit IV drug users. There was a letter to the editor a few days later that really hit the nail on the head. These people are breaking the law using these drugs, yet are going to be given free needles and not be turned over to the authorities - yet diabetics must pay for their own needles.

What is wrong with this picture?

quote:

What is wrong with this picture?

It is not really that surprising. There is lots of overlap in membership among the anti-tobacco zealots and the drug legalization supporters. Imagine how much more money they could squeeze through their tireless agitation and the resulting obscene taxes on drugs (as they did with tobacco) if they were legal. For the anti-tobacco extortion racket, the obnoxious granola-tofu-birkenstock neo-mafia, the drug cartels are intrinsically competitors, whether the individual zealots see it consciously that way or not.

After the FDA decided it was infallible I wouldn't take any drug until it was tested elsewhere first.

The original 36 pills were developed by myriad of drug companies. how did they get all of them to conspire on a single pill? How big is this pill that replaces 36 other pills? I don't know of anyone taking this cocktail currently but I would wonder how large the current pills are individually and how much of them is just filler?

How can any pill taken daily by so many cost $ 14,000 a year. What happened to economy of scale?

If there are a million patients taking a single pill each day of their lives, that is a market of 36,000,000 pills a year, just for the American market. A million Americans taking $ 14,000 worth of pills a year equates to gross sales of $ 14,000,000,000 in America alone.

I live on less than $ 14,000 a year.

quote:

Originally posted by Gabz:
There was a letter to the editor a few days later that really hit the nail on the head. These people are breaking the law using these drugs, yet are going to be given free needles and not be turned over to the authorities - yet diabetics must pay for their own needles.

What is wrong with this picture?

That gives me an idea. Smokers should work for prohibition of tobacco. Maybe they can get cigarettes for free although I suspect it'd just be free lighters: Tobacco=heroin. Lighters=needles.

In reading the articles included in a Google search this morning it is obvious hat Wisconsin's Health Department is pulling out all the stops. Every article was from Wisconsin and all touting the Surgeaon Generals report of junk science. If you repeat the lies enought they become fact is in full swing.

Even the govenor was quoted on a local news outlet. I suggest the residents of Wisconsin start a campaign to eliminate MSA payments to the state. Encourage smokers to buy product from non alligned manufacturers. I would also start asking for names of those saved by current smoking bans.

Start studing the obituaries throughout the state in an effort to identify victums of medical malpractice. Start accumulating real evidence of cause of death in the state. How many dealths were caused by hazardous driving and stupid actions.

How many people died from drug interactions and surgeries. How many patients died in nursing homes shortly after leaving hospitols.

Include columns for people killed instantly from exposure to second hand smoke.

One var owner was quoted as saying that "smoking and drinking go together" well I believe various activities go together with smoking, such as programing software, accounting, and many other boring tasks conducted daily in a business enviroment.

I was raised to believe that computers are susceptible to smoking, but in the 25 years I have worked with a computer adjacent to my ash tray I have yet to loose one to second hand smoke.