President John F. Kennedy utilized the concern of the American people over the nascent Soviet domination of space to toss an unprecedented, ten-year, lunar “Hail, Mary.” President Barack Obama, borrowing the bold visualization of Kennedy’s moonshot, and building upon Vice President Joe Biden’s impetus and passion over the premature cancer death of his son Beau, and that of similar sufferers in the nation, finally was able to rouse a recalcitrant Congress to join him and Joe Biden in a far-reaching and humanely noble closing of their administration.
In the last “State of the Nation” address of his presidency (probably while internally flinching against the possibility of vocal “slings and arrows” from the floor), President Obama announced a seeming pie-in-the-sky, cancer, “moon-shot” initiative he would be presenting to the Congress. Lo and behold, before the end of this very same year, and with unprecedented, bipartisan approval, a revivified Congress sends up a six-billion-dollar-plus, ten-year, “21st Century Cures Act”!
The new law intends to hone in on the fight to cure cancer by combining and strengthening all of those forces already involved in the battle. Cancer is not the only scourge upon the human body, mind and soul to be included in this sweeping legislation. Finally eking its way out of the dark recesses of the past, diseases of the mind now will be given a full hearing. Highlighted in this struggle to normalize the study and treatment of mental health is the vast, new-century spread in the use of opioids.
For just an idea of the scope of this massive assault upon a wily opponent, it will include:
• Expanded range of research and study
• Speed-up in the approval of new medicines and medical devices
• Acceleration in the study of cures for Alzheimer’s
• Mapping of the human brain
• Search for genetic disease cures
• Pediatric research
• Improvement in digital record-keeping
• Increased efficiency in human resource acquisition and retention
• The collection of medical data from a large swath of the population
• The creation of prizes to advance medical research
• State grands to prevent drug abuse
The new bill is not without its critics. Some have expressed concern over excessive latitude in the involvement of “Big Pharma” and manufacturers of medical devices. They feel the speedup in human research trials and approval of new medicines and devices might be counter-productive. Of course, for years, there has been the obverse complaint about excessive slowness in that regard.
As was seen, this explosive news about love conquering all between the President and the Congress, in the waning days of both their tenures, was all swallowed up in the weirdest dénouement of any U.S. presidential election. Nevertheless, “21 Century Cures” will be around a lot longer than the next president or congress. It will be recognized in the next century and beyond as a brilliant, shining moment, when previously stalemated representatives of the American people ignored their antagonisms and came together as a force for the betterment of humanity!
***** ***** *****
Oh, look, oh, look, what we can do,
When I am I and you are you,
We have come to see
You and I are we.
Thus, we do what we’re meant to do.
Comments