Epidemics? nothing new under the sun

Instapundit linked to a NYPost article on 7 ways to stop a plague.

don't bother to read it: it is a WAGD (we're all gonna die) post with an agenda:

Sadly, epidemic prevention doesn’t currently seem to be a priority for the US government. In February, the CDC announced they would need to cut their global disease-prevention efforts by 80 percent due to lack of funding.

all over the internet: WAPO here.

one wonders if this is true, or similar to the "Banned words" kerfuffle a couple months ago that turned out to be fake news.

what was cut was an Obamacare part of the funding
i.e. for bureaucrats to implement programs to investigate stuff that affect people.

and most of it is not for infectious diseases or epidemics, but for programs for the elderly, stuff that families used to do when there were still families out there (diabetes prevention, chronic disease self care, alzheimer's prevention, prevent falling are three examples). I mean, I support breastfeeding, but 8 million dollars to promote it? 126 million to stop smoking, fine: but where is that money going?

Oh yes, some of it is actually about epidemics: 300 million to make sure kids get their shots, and 40 million to help smaller places to get lab access to check for disease.

But most, I suspect, will go to a bloated bureaucracy, where most of the funding goes to pencil pushers, and good folks spend a lot of time in meetings and in "documentation" or "writing proposals".

To Know A Fly is a humorous novel about scientific research, and shows that even 50 years ago, how much time was wasted in getting money:

It is believed in some quarters that to become a successful modern biologist requires a college education and a substantial grant from the Federal Government. The college education not infrequently is as useful for acquiring proficiency in the game of Grantsmanship as it is for understanding biology.

No self-respecting modern biologist can go to work without money for a secretary, a research associate, two laboratory assistants, permanent equipment, consumable supplies, travel, a station wagon for field collecting, photographic supplies, books, animals, animal cages, somebody to care for the animals, postage, telephone calls, reprints, and last, but by no means least, a substantial sum (called overhead) to the university to pay for all the stenographers hired to handle all the papers and money transactions that so big a grant requires.

sounds about right.

I have a longer post about my experience with this at my medical blog.

You think the VA has problems? Try the IHS.