I THROW IN THE TOWEL: and leave the work to you

Linda says "read every word of this blog"

My computer, when it deigns to work, constantly reminds me that I have upwards of 160 notifications of ovarian cancer news – unread.  So what is an FOF to do?  I’ll tell you what: ask you to study THIS

https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2018/new-online-march-2018?cid=eb_govdel

Did you ever wonder what those hordes of liberal arts B.A. graduates actually DO when they graduate?  Well, a significant percentage of them must go to Washington, D.C., and spend the rest of their lives writing reports.  Consequently you, the voter and private citizen, have no excuse not to know what your government is up to; all you need do is read reports, maybe 16 hrs/day.  That’s why you need honest bloggers like me to tell you what to think.  Don’t snicker.

Anyway, I can’t keep up, either.  Do your own damned research – starting with the NCI link (above).  Here are a few things I noticed on my first pass through it, in no particular order.

The NCI budget for last year was $5.69 billion.  That’s a bundle in my world, but Elon Musk can waste that much in one rocket blast.  Let’s get our priorities straight, gang.

At that rate, Jeff Bezos could fund the NCI for 15 years out of his own pocket, and still have plenty to leave to his kids.

NCI put $300 million into the Moonshot.  The moon is still there, and so is OVCA.

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research center received about $96 million in funding, and U.W. got another $26 million.  That makes Seattle’s cancer research efforts third most supported; only Sloan Kettering (N.Y.) and MD Anderson (Texas) get more.  

Improvement is noted in OVCA.  Diagnosis and treatment both are said to be progressively more effective.  Well, maybe….. 

If you REALLY want to get buried in this stuff, Google SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results program, also NCI) and do your own statistics.  As a parting shot: I used SEER to determine that – corrected for age – the rate of acquisition of OVCA decreased 30% between 1975 and 2014.  The number of deaths from the same disease fell 28.6% over the same period.  Progress, sure.  Good enough? – of course not.