Your 'tough part' comment is spot on. But the drug would still be available and affordable to the John Galts out there. It would appear that Medicare would not be covering it (for breast cancer treatment?), which I would have thought dovetails somewhat with the GOP's historical antipathy toward the socialist Medicare system in general and the TeaParty/GOP's desire to dismantle it and replace it with a voucher system.

I'm curious if you'd care to share your remarks and your John Galt cheap shot line with the 9,000 people who have signed an online petition to stop the FDA from disproving Avastin to treat metastatic breast cancer (some of whom have breast cancer and have benefited from Avastin)

Here are some facts.

- In trials, Avastin showed a 52% median improvement in “progression-free survival” - the time women live without their disease spreading or worsening. Avastin delayed the growth in tumors by 11 months in combination with chemo - roughly twice as long as women on chemo alone. ODAC ruled this as "not clinicially meaningful".

- Some metastatic breast cancer patients (especially those with triple negative breast cancer) have gained YEARS with Avastin, some while taking Taxol in combination. Once again, ODAC views this as "not clinically meaningful".

So...if Avastin is rescinded, thousands of dying women will lose a medicine that has been documented as helping them. Imagine if you had metastatic breast cancer and were responding well to this medication (which some are). May I assume you're OK with this? May I assume you're OK wth the line about "not clinically meaningful"???

I am far less interested in the opinions of government medical patriarchs who live in a culture of delay, than I am in the views of physicians who prescribe the drug to thousands of women because they know it can be a useful medicine. I worked in public health for years and I am well aware of the government mindset.

Most independent sources have viewed this decision as one tainted by cost. When asked if the decision was about cost, someone from the FDA replied, "we're not allowed to talk about cost". Note how the reply wasn't, "no, this doesn't have to do with cost"....but rather, "we're not allowed to talk about cost". Some even view this action as potentially setting back future cancer drugs.

I've been wrong - Sarah Palin was (for once) right - these ARE death panels.