Just slapping him around a bit for trying to pick a fight. My original post about fitness and fascism was a lame joke, not a defense of socialized medicine.

Besides, we've already heard at length your sad song about how long it takes to get a drug through the approval process. We've already discussed that. It's old news.

What you might want to consider instead is how development of new antibiotics is now being being neglected because it is more profitable to invest in researching drugs used to treat chronic conditions than in those which will treat acute infections. Pharmaceuticals, after all, is a business.

When antibiotics lose their effectiveness, doctors must prescribe others, but not as many new antibiotics are being developed because it doesn't pay off as well. An antibiotic will either work, and cure you, or fail and you'll die. Either way, in a few days or weeks you can stop taking it. You don't get the return on investment you get from blood pressure or diabetic or cholesterol medications which the patient must continue taking and paying for for the rest of his life.