The small drug company, Vertex, and the big drug company Eli Lilly, are set to announce today that they have the beginnings of a viable protease inhibitor for Hepatitis C. Other companies are also hot on the trail. The reason I point this out is that it shows how foolish it is to pit research for one disease against another. Some criticism of the amount of money poured into HIV has been because it allegedly takes away from money spent on other diseases. But science doesn’t work that way. Often a breakthrough in one area – like blocking the protease in the HIV virus – can yield clues for other viral treatments, like blocking the protease in Hepatitis C. Vertex pioneered one of the better HIV protease inhibitors; no surprise they’re one of the first to make this breakthrough. AIDS research has already transformed our understanding of immunology, helping many other diseases, including breast cancer. Science is rarely zero-sum. Unlike, alas, politics.
(Full disclosure: I have bought and sold Vertex shares in the past; and own some today.)
SONTAG AWARD NOMINEE: “I don’t know whether President Bush reads Foucault – I don’t imagine French intellectuals are high on his bedtime reading list – but if he had he would be aware of the maxim that power creates resistance, and resistance new forms of power: B-52s on the one hand, box-cutters and suicide-bombers on the other. – Joan Smith, the Independent.
SIMPLE BUSH: Revealing piece by Jake Weisberg on Bush’s recent success. Jake believes that the war has brought out Bush’s virtues, because war is simple and Bush, being relatively dumb, is good at simple things:
“Bush continues to exhibit the same lack of curiosity, thoughtfulness, and engagement with ideas that made him a C student. Nuance, complexity, subtlety, and contradiction are not part of the mental universe he inhabits. And curiously enough, it is these very qualities of mind-or lack thereof-that seem to be making him such a good war president.”
Actually, of course, war can be pretty complicated, as can successful management of people. What’s simple is knowing why we should fight, which requires not intelligence but a moral compass. Bush is quite obviously intelligent. He just doesn’t let his intelligence dictate his sense of right and wrong. He knows the two realms of intelligence and morality are categorically separate, a simple truth many liberals don’t easily acknowledge. That’s why government isn’t always best left to the most theoretically clever. It’s best left to those who are practically smart and morally clear. Eggheads like me, and Jake, should stick to journalism. And we shouldn’t condescend to politicians who are achieving things neither of us could begin to master.
The Dish 