Update – It appears that I’m not the only one asking this question…. A recent article in Breitbart from Alicia Colon observes:
I come from a cancer riddled family. My father died of stomach cancer; my sister of leukemia, a niece of pancreatic cancer; another of ovarian cancer. I would dearly love for us to find a cure but I wonder why it is that Breast Cancer has become the darling of Hollywood celebrities. AIDS research is another disease that gets more attention from Hollywood than any other… In 2001, AIDS research got $4,439 per patient from NIH, breast cancer $290, Parkinson’s $175. Diabetes, which killed more people than AIDS and breast cancer combined, got $41. Heart disease, the number one killer, got $58.
Oct 4, 2010 – Does anyone else feel that this focus on breast cancer stuff is way over-marketed? Why are we being inundated with this pink ribbon stuff? Does breast cancer deserve some special status among diseases… Now don’t get me wrong, I certainly don’t want to see anyone getting breast cancer, but is it worse than the prostate cancer that killed my best friend Dave Wittman? Or worse than the Parkinson’s that killed my mother?
The last straw for me was looking in the newspaper and seeing an article, “Breast Cancer Awareness in the Classroom.” What is the purpose of focusing on teaching breast cancer to elementary school students? Is this tantamount to teaching first graders how to use a condom? What is the purpose of all of this?
Perhaps it’s time to start wearing a blue bow tie in recognition of prostate cancer…
I have had similar thoughts about this. There are a lot of people making $ on pink logo’d items, the numerous walks and etc. As I caught part of 60 mins last night. I was stuck by the Gates and the methodolgy they go through when making philanthropic decisions. They are working on Polio and Malaria. Other illnesses have the support and profit possibilites from drug companies. Polio does not. There are a lot of people making a lot of money on this effort. It might be kind of interesting if we actually knew who was making what….You don’t see brown ribbons or red ribbons or etc on other notable causes. I bet they have some serious lobbying efforts, that may even rival MADD.
I see exactly where you are coming on this.