this New York Times This morning, columnist Ross Douthat and venture capitalist and Paypal founder Peter Thiel had a long interview. There is a reason for this to be published in the comments section.
Thiel, a Trump booster whose allies (including Vice President JD Vance) are now littering the White House, was awarded a reign to discuss a softball issue that lasts more than an hour, and discusses various topics. Is Greta Thunberg the Antichrist? Are the three main ideological environmentalisms in Europe the environmentalist “Islamic Sharia Law” and “China’s Communist totalitarian takeover”? Is the AI ”wake up” and able to follow Elon Musk to Mars? That’s what Peter seems to think! Maybe “just ask questions that “Journalism Academy” can add”Hey, what are you talking about“Type.
Admittedly, many of these assertions belong entirely to the realm of what exists within the palace of Thiel, rather than verifiable facts, with at least one notable exception. Relatively early, Peter told Ross [emphasis ours]:
If we look at biotechnology, such as dementia, Alzheimer’s – We have made zero progress in 40 to 50 years. People are completely trapped on amyloid beta. Obviously not working. It’s just some kind of stupid racket, people are just strengthening themselves.
This is a very bold proposition! This is also completely unreal.
“40 or 50 years ago, there were no Alzheimer’s disease treatments 40 or 50 years ago,” Sterling Johnson, a professor of geriatrics and geriatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Engadget. “What we have been able to do in the past 20 years is actually very extraordinary. We have developed markers that can help us determine when to start the disease, using amyloid markers and TAU biomarkers, and we know that the disease actually started 20 years before the symptoms are, which is an important thing, and it is a key thing for us to know whether to prevent this disease.”
Currently, Alzheimer’s disease is still incurable. However, the lack of miracle treatment does not negate the achievements in discovery and prevention so far. “The first treatments were these window dressings. It was like treating symptoms, like treating a cold […] The first generation amyloid therapy is this approach, which simply solves the symptoms by strengthening neurons and increasing neurotransmitters of neurotransmitters. Protein Therapy – is tau, clinical trials are underway. ”
Thiel is a well-known advocate for the development of radical lifespan prolonged (including interest in the blood of young people injected into them), arguing that the scientific research status in the field is a slow and aversion to risk. But groundbreaking work is currently underway. Professor Johnson pointed out a monoclonal antibody called Gantenerumab. In an early test of 73 participants with genetic mutations, this led to their amyloid overdose in the brain, reducing the number of participants suffering from Alzheimer’s symptoms in fact half. “Large Phase III Prevention Test [of gantenerumab] It’s happening now. ”
For those who themselves are pagan thinkers, Till seems to stumble upon Robert F Kennedy Jr, the current head of the Trump administration’s FDA. [National Institute of Health] Kennedy said at a health budget hearing last month.
Not surprisingly, the Alzheimer’s Association called it “an obvious mistake.”
“In fact, in fact, in the last 10 years (2014-2023), the organization wrote: “In the National Institutes of Science and Technology as of September 2024, less than 14% of the new National Institutes of Health (NIH) Alzheimer’s programs will focus on amyloid beta as a therapeutic target. It is obviously wrong to exclude amyloids from other targets. ”
If I personally want more powerful medical research and a timeless life (I don’t), lubrication of the wheel of government and extensive funding of science would be a strange way to achieve this. But it’s the inconsistency of our expectations of tech oligarchs: they say what benefits them, even if the face is nonsense, even if a moment of reflection shows that it is obviously wrong. What is embarrassing is the essay on the record, giving them the freedom to do it.
