I know, a day late, a dollar short and all that. But still, when you consider that hospital-acquired infections kill ~100,000 people per year in the U.S., and that we are now seeing organisms, such as the carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae, aka ‘CRE’ (e.g., E. coli, Klebsiella, Enterobacter) that are resistant to just about everything, it would have been nice if someone had asked the candidates what they would do, besides hoping for new drugs, to reduce both the rate of hospital-acquired infections, as well as control the spread of CREs.
It would have revealed a lot about what they think about government and healthcare. It’s also kinda important, and not something easy to bullshit your way out of out (though I imagine it could be done).
mikethemadbiologist
It would be interesting to have this question answered on two levels – once by each candidate, and once by each candidate’s top science adviser.
I would want the candidates to show some degree of awareness of the issue. I would damned well expect the science advisers to have some semblance of real answers.
Speaking of bullshit, right now the Alberta dead animal industry is in big trouble for spreading E. coli far and wide, apparently due to indifference and incompetence. Yet I suspect that none of the politicians involved could tell you whether the E stands for Escherichia, Enterobacter or Evil – or just means we’ve moved on from D. coli. Certainly the popular press, at least the local right-wing tabloid rag (Calgary Sun, this means you!), is so bad that it appears as things like E-Coli (though I haven’t seen eColi – yet).
“It would have revealed a lot about what they think about government and healthcare”
Eh? Perhaps I’ve missed something significant, but at this point, what is there left about those topics that has yet to be revealed? I can suggest that Romney feels the situation will be easily resolved if those pesky regulations are eradicated, which limit the free workings of the free market pharmaceutical system. Obama, would probably feel that regulations can be helpful in preventing things like, to make something up completely at random, fungal contamination of injectable steroid preps, but perhaps those regulations should be made more sensible and less onerous to business. As for health care, we already know what Obama thinks, and all 360 degrees of opinion held by Romney. It’s not like Romney’s various assertions mean anything at all, either – he can’t afford to express his actual opinions; he’s running for President, for Pete’s sake!
Pingback: Two Very Disturbing Carbapenem-Resistance Observations | Mike the Mad Biologist
Pingback: Two Disturbing Carbapenem-Resistance Observations | Mike the Mad Biologist