After mowing through all the previous seasons of VICE, I was looking forward to the next one, eagerly.
(Well, I guess not too eagerly ’cause I apparently missed the third round’s premiere last week.)
So as I sat down the other evening to enjoy a nice cup of soup after a hard day of doing the Sisyphus version of shoveling snow while more just poured down on me, I belatedly ordered the third installment’s first episode. What’s it about? Current – seemingly miraculous – cancer research that’s being done at the Mayo clinic. And how?
With viruses.
That attack the cancer – specifically.
“What? Like the fake-cure Eugene proposes in the Walking Dead?”
Yes. Like that. Except, here the scientists are more legit with less party-in-the-back goin’ on.
What they’ve done is genetically tweak the viruses (and no, you can’t call ‘em GMO’s ‘cause viruses aren’t living things) that used to be our enemies so that they can specifically snuff out cancer cells and kick ass. Even H.I.V. That’s right. H.I.V. as a cure. For cancer. It’s the stuff of science fiction. Except it’s proving itself as science fact in this new thing oncolytic (onco = cancer; lytic = rip that shit apart) virus therapy. One case showed a middle aged woman who recovered from a tumor bulging out of her head. It shrank down within 36 hours. Another followed a young girl who had her life and a full head of hair restored after trying this as a last resort. Then VICE filmed the progress of a new batch’a sick and desperate people trying it for the first time… and then joking about “racing the cameramen down the hallway” after just one week.
So why isn’t this being handed out like condoms at a prom yet?
Well, as with everything, more research and trials and phases (all that red tape stuff) must be done – but it’ll be coming by 2016. And what’s the catch? That first couple of days to a week following the treatment injection. This is the time when the virus pillages your carcinogenic villages – with the full bodied unpleasant side effect of you maybe wondering if death isn’t such a bad alternative after all, as it all unfolds. But if you survive that, you might live to witness an act of god, glob, Gosling, or whatever you pray to.
I could go on about how jaw-dropping this news is, but I highly suggest you watch it for yourself (below).
And maybe check out other sources on the topic, too.
VICE rocks, but it’s always good to avoid self-informing with just one source.