In response to mass hysteria over Ebola, officials from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have complained that low funding prevented them from properly addressing the disease. But the Daily Mail has a round-up of some of the things the supposedly strapped-for-cash Institute did appear to scrounge up the money for—including studies about chimps throwing poop and Origami condoms.
NIH shelled out $592,000 to find a correlation between chimps with superior poop-flinging abilities and chimps that excel at communication. Another $117,000 was necessary to conclude that most chimps are right-handed.
They laid down $2.4 million to craft “origami” condoms, and $181,000 on studying the benefits cocaine lent to quails’ sex lives.
They also spent $666,000 to conclude that watching sitcom reruns is therapeutic for old people.
Ebola has become a bitterly politicized topic in the United States, with liberals condemning Republican spending cuts for somehow hampering U.S. ability to fight the disease.
But even the Obama administration called for cuts to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Obama’s 2012 budget—and it looks like they have also had plenty of money for other projects in the meantime.
Watchdog.org reports that the CDC spent $1.75 million over seven years on a “Hollywood liaison” to tell filmmakers how to talk about diseases, and bought $2 million worth of office furniture.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) also apparently read the Daily Mail story, using it in his remarks at a rally for Republican Senate candidate Ed Gillespie and House candidate Dave Brat, although he had some of the particulars a little scrambled, referring to “$117,000 spent to determine that most monkeys are right-handed and like to throw poop with their right hand apparently.”
Read the rest of what NIH has been up to, complete with studies of right-handed chimpanzees and online games for Michelle Obama’s White House garden.
