I recently started 2 polls on the future of CIRM.
The polls are focused on the effort led by Robert Klein to get more funding from the State of California for the stem cell agency.
They asked readers about whether Californians will refund CIRM and whether Californians should refund CIRM.
Basically, the polls are asking what readers think will happen and what they want to happen in terms of CIRM potentially getting $5 billion more in funding.
The results of these non-scientific polls are at least encouraging for CIRM backers.
For the poll asking readers to predict CIRM’s future funding, by a greater than 2-1 margin, respondents said “Yes”, the new funding initiative will pass with California voters this fall. That’s way more bullish than I would have predicted.
Others were unsure, but less than 1/4 of replies said outright, “No”.
The second poll about whether readers believe that CIRM should be funded was even more upbeat.
I actually thought this one might swing the other way since we have many readers here on The Niche who run stem cell clinics or are fans of the clinics, and seem to have a dislike or skepticism for organizations such as CIRM, ISSCR, etc.
In this second poll, 62% of respondents favor another multi-billion dollar bolus of money for CIRM. Only 20% were against, while only one in six people were on the fence.
Another potential outcome here that came to mind for me a few weeks back was that more people would be on the fence, but that wasn’t the case.
As a CIRM backer myself, I see these polls as a promising sign. In my own predictions for the stem cell field for 2020, in regard to CIRM funding I predicted it would get more financial support from voters, but with a relatively narrower vote than what we saw on Proposition 71.
What will actually happen?
We’ll see in November.
With only 83 votes each on the two polls, this is not only non-scientific but also a very small sampling so some caution is in order.
Reportedly, CIRM backers have their own poll numbers which are surely from far more rigorous polling, and the results have been suggested to also be upbeat.
I wish they’d release that polling, but I doubt that’ll happen or at least not any time soon.
Finally, it’s also formally possible that the initiative backers won’t get enough signatures to place the measure on the fall ballot, but I think that’s highly unlikely.
For a nice overview of where things stand on the initiative including supporters and opponents see this recent piece from David Jensen over at California Stem Cell Report.
Perhaps the California tax payer ought to be thinking the following…..”Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice….shame on me.”
This shouldn´t be an”either or” question, both must be prioritized, Meanwhile the taxpayer´s dollars are being wasted on pathetic showtrial impeachments, planning for a dumbass wall that will never happen and fighting a seventeen year old Swedish schoolgirl (and getting owned several times over in the process). California´s government is not the problem – Orange45 is. His mistakes could fund CIRM for the next 50 years and put the homeless in the Hilton Hotel.
Your Trump Derangement Syndrome is getting the best of you. Don’t forget that Putin controls everything as well.
There’s over 130,000 homeless people in California. Perhaps $5 billion dollars would be better spent of fixing that problem rather than funding academics to study basic science for another 10 years at universities like Stanford that has an endowment of $27.7 billion dollars. And what happens when an academic discovers a promising treatment? The do like Jeanne Loring and start a private company to profit off it. What a sweet deal.
Homelessness is a huge problem here in California, but I think we can both address that and be the leader in regenerative medicine.
My sense is that Jeanne is clearly in science to help people more than anything else.
Thousands of homeless people deserve help, no question. But tens of millions of people suffer chronic disease–and they are the people the California stem cell program is dedicated to helping.
Except for the fact that billions of dollars and 10 years after promising to cure chronic diseases, they have cured none with any type of stem cell. CIRM is nothing more than a scam to funnel public money into private companies. Look at fedratinib for example. CIRM gave money to Dr. Catriona Jamieson to “revive” an already discovered drug. Jamieson then started Impact Biomedicines, a private company, which was then sold to Celgene for over a BILLION dollars. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, “The price could reach as much as $7 billion over time if the drug reaches certain milestones.” The cash price for INREBIC (Celgene’s brand name) is over $21K for 120 pills. I can’t imagine how much they charge insurance companies for it. My problem is that CIRM (the state) doesn’t reap the financial benefits of the drugs or stem cell treatments they’ve funded. If they would have simply done that, they could probably have self-funded forever instead of having to go back to the taxpayers for more money. As I’ve said before, it’s a sweet deal for academic researchers. Free money to develop new treatments. If they don’t work, so what? If they do work, the researcher forms a private company and cashes in. What’s wrong with this picture?
@Bill,
Why do you think CIRM does not get anything from the Impact Biomedicines-Celgene drug?
Because to my knowledge, they haven’t reported anything. They certainly aren’t getting the reported $1-7 billion dollars they should be getting.
Your poll is a little biased if they are reading your blog. But California voters are dumb enough to keep electing the same officials that tax them into poverty and same voters who voted to take away their personal freedoms.
Also the poll on this blog is open to anyone, not just Californians – so stem cell fans worldwide will vote yes as they are not the ones paying for it.