St. Patrick's Day and the NIH

[Lulu54]

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I just read this on the new  NMSS MS Connections site - according to "Mary Woolley of Research!America:  Americans will spend $4.14 Billion on St. Patrick’s Day . . . that’s enough to fund MS research at NIH for over 25 years."  

Imagine what progress could be made  if everyone on March 17 drank just one less beer and donated that money to NIH or to NMSS for research.  This also tells us how underfunded the NIH is for MS research.  I've shared this thought over on my Facebook page and encourage all of you  to share it as well, it helps to illustrate how our priorities need to shift.

http://msactivist.blogspot.com/2012/03/federal-fridays_09.html

[HVAC]

We are asking Congress for $32 Billion for NIH in the 2014 budget and $10 for CDMRP a peer reviewed research program through the Department of Defense.

Dr. Cohen at the Cleveland Clinic's Adult Stem Cell Project is funded through CDMRP. He only has room for 25 slots due to funding cost. This is where they use your own stem cells.

What is happening is the Government is not so much cutting funding as leaving flat. With the cost of everything climbing leaving funding the same is going backwards not forwards.

Alex

[Karen99]

Good info LuLu and Alex.  Thanks. I'll put it to use.

[Lulu54]

My friend Lisa also pointed out "Approx. $122 million went toward MS research in the FY2011 NIH budget. That's 0.4% of the entire $30.7 billion NIH budget for that year. (Arthritis and rheumatic diseases got 0.43% of the budget, meaning less than 1% of NIH research dollars are going towards the two most expensive disease areas in our country.)"

The numbers are staggering in more than one way.

[HVAC]

Good point. Mary said that to us at the Public Policy Conference in D.C. on Tuesday.  Another statistic is 1 million to given to research funding creates 2 billion in jobs. She gave great speech.

These are all great statistics, but what a Congressman told the N.C. delegation when we met with him is lawmakers do not care about statistics. What they want to hear is our personal stories, those they can not ignore. Now is when they are doing the 2014 budget and we are asking for $32 Billion. He urged us those with MS to call your leaders and say how this affects you personally. Put stories to the statistics.

Another Representative said all the medical causes are making their voices heard and basically it will come down to who they hear from the most. This Representative, who is a nurse and whose husband is a Doctor, thinks MS is not that important simply because her constituents do not tell her it as important to them as other diseases our. Silence is the same thing as saying it is not important.

Alex