Op-Ed: UCSF should not waste money on erectile dysfunction research

According to findings by NBC Bay Area, the University of California San Francisco had received $1.5 million in federal stimulus that was allocated to the study of erectile dysfunction of overweight middle aged men.

NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit broke the story on May 15, as part of its ongoing series of investigations regarding the use of federal stimulus in California. Information regarding Grant number 1R01HD056950-01A2 are available at Recovery.gov. Wow - Basically the Federal Government and UCSF are wasting taxpayer money by financing the work of the only people in the world who have never heard of Viagra. Remember that this is University of California San Francisco; one of the world's leading centers of health sciences research and medical education. Next to the grossly over-funding of UC Chancellor Mark Yudof and the UC Regents care-free lifestyle, this has to be one of the biggest waste of money by the University of California. The news may have given writers the opportunity to crack a few jokes, but the situation on the UC campuses is tragically grim. The UC system is already struggling with budget cuts which have resulted in major cuts to student services, limited courses and overcrowded classes. On top of that are the tuition hikes that have become a burden on students. So obviously the last thing that needs to be funded is research into erectile dysfunction. A medical condition that is already well researched and already has many treatable options; just check out the Wikipedia page for erectile dysfunction. Worse is that offering such a grant for such pointless research is a theft from the research of a medical subject that actually matters, like the cure for AIDS or cancer. Had this grant been used for research that matters, then the $1.5 million in federal stimulus would be money well spent. Because it's not rocket science to know that society gains more from curing an epidemic than learning more about erectile dysfunction. Republicans have criticized the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 as being government waste while Gov. Jerry Brown is struggling to reduce the states deficient. This waste just helps strengthen the argument that the stimulus has failed and Gov. Brown is just another tax & spend liberal. It's because of poor policies and logistics that allowed money to be wasted for such a redundant study. Or it's because Chancellor Yudof is getting tired of his wife complaining about his late night performances.