16 Oct The (Good?) Old Days: Part XII – Eradicating Disease

I am a fan of the HBO TV series Boardwalk Empire. It takes place in 1920s Atlantic City highlighting the corruption and other problems mostly related to prohibition during an otherwise booming economic time.  But signs of the times are everywhere. In a recent episode, a heavy drinker tells a friend he has cirrhosis of the liver and a very short time to live. In another, influenza takes the life of a character. These days, antibiotics easily cure the flu and, in the extreme, a liver transplant often solves the cirrhosis issue.  Go on and on. Polio, pneumonia, etc.

More recently, the Human Genome Project is slowly giving researchers more and more tools that could lead to the eradication of many other existing diseases. As an attorney I work with a number of exciting young companies developing vaccines for some very common but serious maladies. A cancer cure may not be that far away say many.

A sign near a tunnel leading to Manhattan says, “The first person to live to be 150 years old has already been born.” I think this is true. There are some serious implications such as the impact on our pension, Social Security and Medicare systems as people live longer and longer. But all in all of course this is dramatically and amazingly better than prohibition-era AC.