Lung Cancer vs. AIDS

I heard the other night (MSNBC- Situation Room-Nov,7,2005) that we spend about $1,700 per lung cancer death on research to cure lung cancer while we spend about $163,000 per AIDS death on research to cure AIDS. A fair minded person might say....."Whatsup with that?"

It's a really stark contrast if you assume both diseases are self-inflicted in some ways and to varying degrees depending on the individual case. I presume it is just evidence that the squeaky wheel gets the oil.