28. Patience is one of the differences between life science and property development

I read with relief that the irresponsible touting of hydroxychloroquine as a miracle coronavirus remedy by Trump and his acolytes has ceased after the drug was shown to have, if anything, a detrimental effect to survival chances in a retrospective clinical trial. Trump was enthusiastic about early evidence and could not help himself. Those who work in life science know that every single day, new treatments and tests against all kind of conditions show promise. Most of them fall by the wayside during the stringent marketing regulatory approval process designed to agree the ethics of their use and to establish their safety and efficacy. An early, anecdotal article on promise is no more than an attempt by the scientific team to inform of the potential and attract some funding, echoed by media looking to produce some content. Patience is needed. This I can imagine is hard to understand for a property developer with a rich dad, whose patience muscle has probably not had enough exercise

Length: 996 characters 

Comments

Sandra K. said…
You have drawn a very interesting parallel between science and property development underpinning one individual. More so, indeed being born with a silver spoon often time (but not always) predicates a degree of patience, or lack of it.
SantiDominguezV said…
Well... the degree of patience that is needed when working in life science is quite different to other industries. It has happened to me many times that I have wanted a solution to work quickly, because it would both be good for business and society, but in science and particularly in healtcare applications it is critical to get it right and to establish beyond doubt, and to the satisfaction of regulators, that the solution is ethical, safe and efficient, in that order. This can take a long time and can be frustrating. For Trump this must be difficult, as he is probably used to get what he wants when he wants it. He clearly wants a cure to coronavirus, which he probably perceives as hurting his election chances (his behaviour shows that saving American lives is not really in his agenda), and he is prepared to push anything to stop the damage to the public and more importantly in his mind to the economy. So, he does not wait for confirmation the treatment he is pushing works, he just pushes it anyway, which may even put lives at risk. This is what you get with small children, they want something, they want it now, and they will have it if they think they can get away with it. Waiting is difficult until you develop a certain mental maturity, which Trump I think shows every day he has not done yet...
SantiDominguezV said…
I also got thinking, a minute ago... that this all makes perfect sense, except one thing... how can he be the President of the US???
Melkisecebe said…
Patience and empathy lie in the frontal lobe, that is probably smaller or less developed than his hands in this case...
SantiDominguezV said…
I did not think about this from a neurological perspective... If it is frontal lobe, maybe it is also a case of walking into so many doors and face palming so much, empathy and patience suffer detrimental effects.. Interesting thought. I am sure you are not the only person who would probably be interested in getting a few MRIs of Trump's brain...
Ben said…
Who needs chloroquine when you can just inject yourself with disinfectant as a panacea. Trump is a medical trailblazer.
SantiDominguezV said…
Indeed Ben, although my favourite is the light... getting light inside the body... I am not sure if he is suggesting that everyone swallows a light bulb, to zap everyone with a superpowerful laser that obliterates them or whether he is toying with the quantum properties of photons... are they inside the skin? or they outside? Maybe he has been reading Heisenberg or Schrodinger? That last possibility really fascinates me

Popular posts from this blog

149. It's all about the bike

34. The 'Todos tus libros' platform