The water challenge -for sure- sounds like a fun thing to do. It is like two buddies challenging each other to chug down some nasty drinks or pay 20 bucks. ALS will definitely benefit from the popularity and donations this challenge gathered, but do people care about medical research or do they do it for the fun of it?
Let us ignore that every challenge wasted around 10USD of otherwise clean water, which could be used to supply water to an African family for one week . And, let us ignore the concussions that happened from people trying to be cool while they are doing it. And, let us ignore that many people are doing the challenge but not donating. The most important part to focus on, is that we reduce the medical research budget by billions yearly, and we can all do something about it without wasting any water.
If you work in medical science, you know that 15 or even 20 million dollars will not cure a disease. You need extensive research and dedicate individuals with a secured budget over multiple years in order to achieve anything.
NIH and Research institutions are more reliable than you and I when it comes to providing donations to medical research. Actually, they are the reliable fund source for most medical researchers. The NIH is constantly losing funding and slammed every year with budget cuts. Every year, hundreds of researchers can't find funding for their medical research because of the budget cuts on medical research.
If you really care about research, do the simple cheap thing; vote out senators who propose budget cuts on medical research either to support war, give tax cuts to the rich, or whatever the long list of disappointing reasons they want the money to go for.
Now, if you do so, you can pore water on yourself. Or better, donate 10$ to UNICEF clean water project:
https://www.unicefusa.org/donate/donate-unicef-tap-project/16034
Share This Article
