Does Hollywood Influence Where Our Medical Research Dollars Go?

I was watching a Giants football game when I noticed that an opposing player’s chin guard was pink. Then I noticed his pink socks and other uniform parts were this god-awful color that I have always despised. My daughter told me that October is Breast Cancer month and I groaned at the idea of having to put up with seeing that awful shade instead of the glorious colors of autumn.

I come from a cancer riddled family. My father died of stomach cancer; my sister of leukemia, a niece of pancreatic cancer; another of ovarian cancer. I would dearly love for us to find a cure but I wonder why it is that Breast Cancer has become the darling of Hollywood celebrities. AIDS research is another disease that gets more attention from Hollywood than any other.

John Stossel reported back in 2009 on the Fox Business Website- “In 2001, AIDS research got $4,439 per patient from NIH, breast cancer $290, Parkinson’s $175. Diabetes, which killed more people than AIDS and breast cancer combined, got $41. Heart disease, the number one killer, got $58.”

Parkinson’s is listed third and could that be because Michael J. Fox is a very effective spokesperson and victim of that disease? Several Hollywood actresses have survived breast cancer and are enthusiastic supporters of the pink campaign;; Suzanne Somers; Kate Jackson; Edie Falco; Jaclyn Smith; Shirley Temple Black and more. Rock Hudson brought the AIDS epidemic to every household watching Dynasty and I can’t count how many of my gay friends died of this preventable disease.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see osteoporosis climb the research funding chart since Sally Fields has admitted she suffers from this while promoting a drug to control it.

The problem I have with celebrities fundraising for these diseases and whole months being designated for feverous campaigns is that corporations end up exploiting the sales for profit. For every yogurt you buy with a pink ribbon, the company will send ten cents for research. You would end up eating three yogurts a day for the month just to generate a $36 donation. Why not just send a check directly to the Cancer Society? Why not support research for all cancers?

I’ve always identified with Kramer on the Seinfeld show who enraged everybody at an AIDS Walk by refusing to wear a red ribbon. He’s confronted and assaulted by two AIDS walkers after screaming, “This is America! I don’t have to wear anything I don’t wanna wear! ”

Well apparently we all do, Kramer, bow to the pink and the red and whatever color ribbon Hollywood celebrities will don on Oscar Night.

The irony about the pink campaign is that it came about in the early 1990’s when a woman with a family history of breast cancer, Charlotte Haley, made peach ribbons with a card that read, “The National Cancer Institute annual budget is $1.8 billion, only 5 percent goes for cancer prevention. Help us wake up our legislators and America by wearing this ribbon.”

The executives at Estee Lauder and Self Magazine asked Haley for permission to use her ribbon. She refused saying they were too commercial so they changed the color to pink.

I wonder if this October “pink” campaign would have pissed me off so much if the color was peach.

I like peach.