Perpetual Ruminations

Time For a Change

Doing better tonight, made it in before 11:00 p.m. but the youngest is still awake, reading. Hopefully, she falls asleep soon.

The other night I wrote a bit about the new Covid vaccine. I mostly touched on the safety concerns so many people seem to have. In fact, over in Sparks, I read earlier a post about people being contacted in ten years if they took it, because of problems and litigations. Of course, we have this same issue with many drugs that have been more thoroughly tested and took years to develop. Also, there is concern about side effects but think about all the medications advertised on television and the list of nasty side effects from most all of them. Yet another point is, yes we may find problems down the road, but without it, many won't be around, down the road.

But that's not what I wanted to write about tonight. Instead, my thoughts go to how fast everyone got going on finding a vaccine and getting it developed, tested, and out to the public; about a quarter of the time it usually takes. This got me thinking about new medications for other things, better medications, and medication for things that currently have none.

If they can develop a Covid vaccine this fast, they should be able to develop other medications just as quickly.  Also, there are medications found that are never fully developed because the cost is so high and the number of people who would purchase it is too low. For a pandemic, there's a lot of money to be made, and there is a lot of help with the costs of research and development that is not available for the average medication. With the same backing and desire, how many other health issues could be cured or treated better?

It's just my thoughts and opinion, but if they can find and develop a vaccine for the pandemic this quickly, they should be able to do the same for other health problems. Sure, a bit more testing would be nice, but think about the person who is terminal and will not be here once the testing time is completed. If they can waive it for the pandemic, they can waive it for those who are willing to try because they have no other options and are about out of time. I think one thing we can learn from this pandemic is that it is possible to find cures and develop them much faster. I think it's time for a change.