Rudy Giuliani is running an ad now that talks about his bout with prostate cancer. He had it five years ago. Five year survival rates for men in his age group in the United States are 82%. Mr. Giuliani claims that the survival rate in Great Britain is 42% – that is, if he got the disease in Great Britain, he likely would have died.
It’s a lie. According to cancerresearchUK.org, the survival rate in Great Britain for men Rudy’s age is over 80%. Overall, the survival rate there is lower than here, but Britain is notorious for underfunding their health service, and it shows. They have less early detection, the key to survival of any cancer. They spend around 41% per capita of what we do on health care ($2,160 versus $5,267 in 2004) (5.8% of GDP), underfunding their national service, and it shows. (We spend over 15% of our GDP here, and it doesn’t show.)
In other words, Giuliani is lying. Turns out he got his information from a notorious right wing think tank, the Manhattan Institute, which seems to be an ‘information for hire’ service for them. Rudy is going to continue running the ad, truth be damned.
It’s right wing politics as usual, truth the first casualty. They’ll keep on doing it because, frankly, it works.
Piece of Mindful 
