# KGS, you are an idiot. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 10, 2009, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kgs-you-are-an-idiot/495916 "2009-05-10T04:09:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 28
**Author:** ![Sebastienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Sebastienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sebastienne)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kgs-you-are-an-idiot/495916/28 "2009-05-11T06:51:04Z")
From the GQ thread: > [@Why didn't my oncologist tell me about alternative cancer treatments?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-my-oncologist-tell-me-about-alternative-cancer-treatments/495894/65): > > Okay, let’s see…the AIDS cocktail costs [$10,000 to $12,000 per year](http://www.time.com/time/asia/features/heroes/cipla.html). The typical AIDS cocktail patient can survive for…20 years? 30? 50? Who knows? The disease isn’t that old yet. But AIDS generally afflicts young adults, so we’re talking a potential lifetime of consistent income. > > An AIDS vaccine would cost…how much? $50 to $100 would be my guess (any more than that, and the drug companies would be accused of price gouging.) Plus you’ve got the very loud & obnoxious anti-vax crowd to deal with, so you’re NOT going to get 100% sell-through…perhaps only those people at high risk for catching the illness, and maybe not even all of them. Sure, you’ll get moral props for eradicating one of the most feared and deadliest viruses in human history, but that sort of accolade doesn’t always prop up the bottom line. From the viewpoint of a multinational corporation in a capitalistic economy, the numbers don’t add up – it’s clear which procedure produces maximum profit. Yeah, the last thing Big Pharma would ever want to do is cut down on the incidence of a sexually transmitted virus that leads to a sickness that, in the cases it’s not rapidly lethal, requires expensive treatment and long term monitoring. Especially with a vaccine that would probably only be marketed to the population of highest risk-- heck, I bet there’d be moral backlash from the Religious Right against such a shot, making it even less profitable. And that’s why there’s no HPV vaccine. OH WAIT. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kgs-you-are-an-idiot/495916)._