"Isn't it wonderful? Disease is genetic, and we can alter gene function. We're winning..."
Much trumpeting of genetic cures is on the propaganda agenda these days---but where is the evidence?
In order to rank as a cure, manipulation of DNA would have to heal a
well-defined disease across the board, in a vast majority of cases. No
such victories are occurring at present.
But in order to raise huge money for continuing research, you don't say,
"Well, we hope the minor triumphs so far will expand in the future, so
please write us a check for five hundred million dollars." Instead, you
tell lies, you exaggerate, you avoid stark
facts.
Reliable DNA cures are, right now, far beyond the reach of modern
research. This means claiming the basic CAUSE of a given disease is
gene-based is highly questionable, because the proof is in the pudding.
If you can't produce a real cure across the board,
utilizing the purported DNA-cause, you can't really claim you know the
cause. Get it? "Well, we know what's causing Disease X, it's a
particular gene, which we've isolated, but, ahem, we can't cure Disease
X." No. That doesn't fly.
Then we have the so-called AI component. It goes this way; "In order to
achieve genetic cures, we need to do an enormous amount of DNA sorting,
which would take humans years and years. But with computers, we can
accomplish the work in manageable time. This
in itself is a miracle of modern science..." Yes, it might be, if,
again, cures were really available, but they're not. Therefore, the
invocation of AI is piece of misdirection.
All the propaganda focusing on genes rests on the pop-science notion,
first floated decades ago, that the functioning of the human body is
directed by genetic information, which contains complex commands. This,
too, is an unproven assertion---particularly
the related idea that every disease is created by a single gene. That
assumption hasn't panned out. In this regard, the holy grail would
consist of the ability to cure a grave disease which is obviously
clustering in a given population because of environmental
toxins. "You see, it doesn't matter how much pollution our
corporations cause. We can go in and change genetic programming, so
humans are invulnerable to the poisons."
That is yet one more unproven assertion. It should be classified as a fairy tale until further notice.
I'm not saying absolutely NOTHING useful has been learned from doing
genetic research. I'm saying what has been learned has been massaged,
exaggerated, and lied about, to a vast degree.
I've described, above, the basic lies. We're talking about pop culture
notions and comic book characterizations being put in place, replacing
sober truth.
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