Re:Pfizer is testing a pill that, if successful, could cure ...
by coldtea on Monday April 26, 2021 @07:14PM
(#26949528)
>Imagine it costs $20 billion to have a 90% shot at coming up with a cure. You might spend a ton of money and come up with a cure, but it's also possible that you'd spend all that money (which could have been spent on more immediate/important issues) and end up with nothing.
On the other hand, it is an indictment when that's a concern, when a private company trivially spends comparable amounts for buying things like Instagram and WhatsApp to push more ads, milk more personal details, and poison more minds with BS and waste more personal time...
Re:Pfizer is testing a pill that, if successful, could cure ...
by techrat on Monday April 26, 2021 @10:51PM
(#26951392)
The 'common cold' is any one of hundreds of different viruses... with many different types of viruses within those hundred+ that are commonly spread.
Covid is a specific class of virus (coronavirus) of which there are relatively few variants.
If it cost $20 Billion to deal with Covid, you'd have to spend at least 100 times that for each and every individual strain of virus that tends to be viewed as one 'common cold.'
Oh, and we've already been trying to cure the 'common cold' for decades. The problem is that there's just too many of 'em.
The situation is different when COVID is a catalyst because we are already spending $19 billion (for example) on a COVID cure, and along the way we have learned that if we spend another $1 billion there's a 90% chance we'll cure the common cold.
Having been forced into this situation, it makes sense to go the last mile. That doesn't mean the whole trip would have been clearly worthwhile from the start.