Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 25, 1993 TAG: 9311250238
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: RAY REED
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A: To find evidence that spending money on researching a disease helps get rid of it - or curb it, at least - we have to look at the big picture.
The brightest light recently is gene therapy for "bubble boy disease," approved in 1990 for children with a genetic disorder that cripples the immune system and forces them to live in sterile, plastic environments.
The average medical discovery is a product of research by many doctors and scientists over dozens of years.
Usually, each discovery provides only a small clue to a puzzling disease.
Medical research cannot be reduced to double-entry accounting and line-item budgeting. No one knows which entries to include or what lines to charge them to, because vast amounts of material have accumulated from thousands of sources.
The grand-slam home run of medical research probably was Dr. Jonas Salk's polio vaccine, funded by $1.7 million (in 1954 dollars) from what's now the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation.
Salk, though, had already distilled the research of bacteriologists over the previous 100 years, so those scientists were the runners who scored ahead of him.
Salk also worked in the development of the earliest influenza vaccines - which led to the injection about one-forth of us will receive this year. \
Redneck follow-up
Q: Regarding your explanation that the term "redneck" came from descriptions of Southern farmers getting sunburned necks: I read a book that said "redneck" referred to the coal miners in the 1920s who wore red neckerchiefs for solidarity in their strike against the mine owners. K.C., Roanoke
A: You're right about miners using "redneck."
However, their version of the word seems a bit like the miners' old carbide lamps - it flickered for awhile and went out.
Lon Savage, a Virginia Tech authority on coal-mining history, said Roanoke's Baldwin-Felts detectives called miners rednecks during the 1920-21 civil war in the coalfields. Savage has seen the word in transcripts from trials held afterward.
The miners' uniform was blue bib overalls, with a red bandanna tied around their necks.
Coal miners didn't personify one of the connotations attached to "redneck." Their ranks included black miners, Savage's research indicates.
This is legitimate history, but somehow it got left out of school history books.
Maybe that explains why three dictionaries and two other publications trace the origin of "redneck" to Southern farmers.
\ Got a question about something that might affect other people too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Give us a call at 981-3118. Maybe we can find the answer.
by CNB