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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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Part:         Session:         Page of 999

Lasker:

In favor of the House bill as first stated. But they were always against whatever was the maximum. They were for the first House version, the first bill. See, the House bill changed in committee.

Q:

Their opposition is predicated on the fact that too much money can't box utilized?

Lasker:

That it should stay with the National Institutes. Of course, it's a natural dread that as 60 percent of all surgery is cancer surgery, what will happen if you can really control cancer by drugs or by vaccines or by some other therapy? It would be terrible for members of the AMA who are surgeons. They never think about the people who die each year including doctors.

Q:

Doesn't the same experience hold in the field of medicine that holds in manufacturing? We develop a short cut to produce some product but there's always something else.

Lasker:

Well, of course there is, but they don't like it if they have to learn something new. You see, the people who are ear, nose and throat specialists, when penicillin arrived and you didn't have to do mastoid operations, hated it, because they had to learn new things to do. The people didn't have to have mastoids. Penicillin avoided it and other antibiotics, and all kinds of things in nose and throat, all the infections largely could be cleared up with antibiotics. They used to have to do fantastic operations.

So this is a big load that one drags along in any effort in medicine, is this economic subconscious unwillingne as of the doctors





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