A thousand years from now, when China rules the world, what people will marvel and shake their heads in wonder about is the fact that almost everyone in our time died for nothing. Most of us will die of curable diseases and conditions.
In fact, it is arguably worse than that. Since nearly all our maladies are curable, millions suffer needlessly.
Well, you might ask , if we could cure all disease, why don’t we do it?
The answer is simple. Because government does not want to cure all disease and because the people constantly vote for politicians who do not want to cure all disease.
Most western governments use health care as a way of accumulating money and power for themselves and as a way to keep their citizens under control. Government enjoys the power of life and death over the populace and they are loath to let it go.
In the science fiction series Star Trek, Captain Jean Luc Picard always used to oder hot tea from a machine that could make any kind of food. In our laboratories research scientists are working on being able to tailor medicines that will be able to cure whatever ails us with few or no side effects. Computer programs and simulations are being created to match every known molecule against every known disease and to design new molecules if no existing one can do the job.
In yet other laboratories every known plant, animal, and bit of exotic mold and soil are being tested against every known disease.
Eventually, these methods may cure every illness from AIDS to cancer and tuberculosis. But it takes time and money. Imagine if every western government was spending most of its health care dollars on curing diseases rather than finding ever more devious ways to ration health care. Imagine that whenever some new diseases rears its ugly head or an old disease becomes drug resistant, we could scan the patient, take blood and tissue samples and order the computer to produce a cure that heretofore never existed.
Some wags say that a human body is a way to transport bacteria and viruses from place to place. Modern medicine simply makes certain that our bodies will be comfortable hosts for contagion as long as possible. This generation should demand as it’s birthright the ability to cure all diseases. The way to do so is clear. Vote only for politicians who want better health–not more health care. And when you vote with you money give to charities that invest more in cures rather than in treating or diagnosing diseases. Invest in pharmaceutical companies that concentrate on cures and when you buy medicine buy it from companies that are trying to cure rather than diagnose or treat disease.
There is a downside to this strategy. It is certainly risky. People who are sick now could receive less treatment as we would spend most our efforts on finding cures. However, even people who are sick might find the change in strategy preferable. Many of today’s treatments cause a shocking loss of quality of life and produce side effects that are almost as bad as the sickness.
Tell your local and national politicians to take cure.
Don't Eat the Iodine, Eat the Fish
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