American Council on Science and Health

FDA Approves Costly Drug Tandem for Advanced Melanoma - The FDA has approved a two-drug combination for advanced melanoma patients. The combo, made by Bristol-Myers Squibb, is expected to cost $250,000 for one year. Expected gain in life is measured in months, but some subsets may experience a dramatic benefit. The real question is: Who are those patients?

What Senator Boxer Wants, She Gets — Or So it Seems- Sen. Barbara Boxer was once a fervent supporter of revising the 39-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act. But today California's senior senator is seen, not as backing an update of a law that's inadequate to deal with modern chemical science, but instead as someone who is holding up the works.

Possible Breakthrough For Treating Type 1 Diabetes - Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body fails to produce insulin. But Belgian researchers have come up with a potential solution: reprogramming pancreatic cells to produce insulin and respond to glucose. They announced this week that it's working well in models, with study in humans to hopefully take place.

Happy Dance Time: CA Vaccine Referendum Fails - California activists said recently that they weren't able to garner enough signatures to put the new, tighter school vaccine requirements on the 2016 ballot, in an effort to overturn them. It's a significant win for public health, but it also reveals something about how thin California's anti-vax movement really is.

Dan Rather Tells Both Sides to Stop Ignoring Science - The politicization of science was on display during the last Republican presidential debate, and former network news anchor Dan Rather took to the internet to criticize the candidates on their science positions. But surprisingly, Rather had equal scorn for targets on both ends of the political spectrum.  

 

My Take - Well, that's all fine and dandy but Ole Dan has had some occasional issues with some serious biases himself in the past....well actually ....his whole career. But this does give us a meaningful demonstration of hope because it proves even a blind monkey can find a coconut once in a while.