Subject:
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Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Wed, 10 May 2000 15:44:39 GMT
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Viewed:
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578 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Christopher Tracey writes:
> We have had over fifty years of cancer research and the overall rate has not
> decreased. After a few years of intense research against the polio virus,
> it's rate of infection was almost down to nothing... Seems like the logical
> choice to me is to fight a battle that we may have the ability of winning in
> the short term.
This is a good point that hasn't been discussed much here. The likelihood of
progress should go into the cost-benefit analysis. OTOH, if the techniques
developped for Polio worked for HIV, it'd be under control by now, right?
Since that's not the case, I have to assume that the analogy isn't perfect.
How can we predict the success of research endevours?
Chris
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
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| (...) Ok, the virus does mutate. the mutation rate for the genes that code for the protein coat is about 15%/8 years. Compare this to the divergence rate in almost any gene between a person and a chimpanzee which is about 2%/several million years. (...) (25 years ago, 9-May-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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