> Federal support for mRNA vaccine research appears in jeopardy after KFF Health News reported Sunday that officials at the National Institutes of Health have directed scientists to remove all references to the lifesaving technology from their grant applications. All such research is now under direct scrutiny from health secretary and long-time anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
There is a point to be made in favor of political stability.
One of the great things in Ireland is the list-based voting that punishes extreme viewpoints and policies. OTOH, sometimes we need politicians willing to make unpopular choices, and our system makes that more difficult.
China, IIRC, has a different concept, one where a person can't be a candidate to a position more than one level higher than the highest one they were previously elected for. This prevents anomalies like Trump, and seems to be a very sensible approach (if coupled with a couple extra freedoms and multiple parties).
Xi Jinping has removed many of those protections though like the maximum term count so he could stay in power.
And Ireland politics got me pretty sad. It just seems to pingpong between two equally inept parties (fianna fail and fine gael) and nothing new ever happens. They just keep piling problem on problem without ever solving anything. I remember there being a lot of fuss about patients in hallways during mary harney's reign in the mid '00s and I don't think that was ever solved. Last time I ended up in hospital there I ended up in exactly that situation. The post-2007 housing crisis is another one. Does anyone actually expect that to be ever solved? And the strange thing is, this country has no shortage of land whatsoever.
What happens is that one party blames their predecessor and wins the election and then next term things switch back again through exactly the same mechanism.
I think something more left like sinn fein would be good for the country but they have too much image baggage due to their past. And labour seems to really just sit at the sidelines forever.
>What happens is that one party blames their predecessor and wins the election and then next term things switch back again through exactly the same mechanism.
This is literally the United States for the last half century.
So you have to work your way up from the bottom? Surely there’s a mathematical impossibility to get to the presidency here unless you’re making astronomical progress year over year?
Functionally, the US mostly works the same way - people start in small local roles and move to county, state, and national levels over time. It's just not enforced as a hard rule, just a practical thing.
That makes more sense then. The US probably has around that number too and you’re right that we do mostly work up from the bottom. The most common method of avoiding the ladder is through military service but that’s basically a parallel ladder requiring very similar work.
Yeah. If you're a somewhat senior officer in the military, you know how to do things like budget, manage, lead, etc. that all come in handy running an organization like a campaign or Congressional office.
I don't know if I did the right thing when I stopped posting research articles here involving mice rather than humans. All I know is that I got tired of always seeing
(I have not taken a biology class since high school so please bear with me if this is a stupid question)
For this treatment to work in people, does the targeting peptide have to be tailored specifically for the individual receiving the treatment, or is mostly universal?
I suppose we'll have to hope researchers overseas complete the work.
https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/03/federal-funding-for-m...
> Federal support for mRNA vaccine research appears in jeopardy after KFF Health News reported Sunday that officials at the National Institutes of Health have directed scientists to remove all references to the lifesaving technology from their grant applications. All such research is now under direct scrutiny from health secretary and long-time anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Chinese scientists under the steadfast leadership of the communist party of China will gladly undertake this important scientific research.
There is a point to be made in favor of political stability.
One of the great things in Ireland is the list-based voting that punishes extreme viewpoints and policies. OTOH, sometimes we need politicians willing to make unpopular choices, and our system makes that more difficult.
China, IIRC, has a different concept, one where a person can't be a candidate to a position more than one level higher than the highest one they were previously elected for. This prevents anomalies like Trump, and seems to be a very sensible approach (if coupled with a couple extra freedoms and multiple parties).
Xi Jinping has removed many of those protections though like the maximum term count so he could stay in power.
And Ireland politics got me pretty sad. It just seems to pingpong between two equally inept parties (fianna fail and fine gael) and nothing new ever happens. They just keep piling problem on problem without ever solving anything. I remember there being a lot of fuss about patients in hallways during mary harney's reign in the mid '00s and I don't think that was ever solved. Last time I ended up in hospital there I ended up in exactly that situation. The post-2007 housing crisis is another one. Does anyone actually expect that to be ever solved? And the strange thing is, this country has no shortage of land whatsoever.
What happens is that one party blames their predecessor and wins the election and then next term things switch back again through exactly the same mechanism.
I think something more left like sinn fein would be good for the country but they have too much image baggage due to their past. And labour seems to really just sit at the sidelines forever.
>What happens is that one party blames their predecessor and wins the election and then next term things switch back again through exactly the same mechanism.
This is literally the United States for the last half century.
The unpopular choices that need to be made in America are the centrist ones.
One of them being "whether it's left- or right-aligned, let's not engage in your social agenda on the federal level for a while"
>where a person can't be a candidate to a position more than one level higher than the highest one they were previously elected for
For much of the time in the Roman Republic they also had this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursus_honorum
So you have to work your way up from the bottom? Surely there’s a mathematical impossibility to get to the presidency here unless you’re making astronomical progress year over year?
There aren't that many (11) levels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_service_of_the_People%27...
Functionally, the US mostly works the same way - people start in small local roles and move to county, state, and national levels over time. It's just not enforced as a hard rule, just a practical thing.
That makes more sense then. The US probably has around that number too and you’re right that we do mostly work up from the bottom. The most common method of avoiding the ladder is through military service but that’s basically a parallel ladder requiring very similar work.
Yeah. If you're a somewhat senior officer in the military, you know how to do things like budget, manage, lead, etc. that all come in handy running an organization like a campaign or Congressional office.
The only 2 countries on Earth - USA and China.
You don't have to choose between oligarchy and communism. There's normal countries out there.
I'm a huge fan of how Switzerland does it. We USED to be that pre-Great Depression / New Deal.
Some more words from Aristotle to aid the discussion: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-different-forms-of-g...
I'd probably go with plutocracy for the U.S., but we're in the process of trying to disrupt that. (Trying...)
Yes, lets go back to how it was in the 20s and 30s in the United Sates... Said noone ever. I wish I had a time machine for these people.
I'm not saying we should have a plutocracy, I think we've achieved one. It needs breaking up.
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That’s research. Which they are defunding.
Just flag the comment and move on.
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Go on. Tell us how you'd figure out if a medical treatment is safe for human use without funding research like a clinical trial.
How? What are we pursuing in this area?
I don't know if I did the right thing when I stopped posting research articles here involving mice rather than humans. All I know is that I got tired of always seeing
>in mice
as the top comment.
(I have not taken a biology class since high school so please bear with me if this is a stupid question)
For this treatment to work in people, does the targeting peptide have to be tailored specifically for the individual receiving the treatment, or is mostly universal?
Science and AAAS are killers?
That's how I read the headline at first.
so how long until clinical deployment?
[dead]
in mice