Anti-Radiation Drug

BravoFourEcho writes "The BBC has an article about a U.S. company that is producing a drug to mitigate some of the effects of radiation. Reminds me of Rad-X in the Fallout series of games."

Comments

Effectiveness?

[meridoc]

Okay, I'm only a chemist (not a biologist), but how well will increasing the white blood cell count really keep you from getting sick? After a large dose of radiation, there should *not* be a negligible effect on the person, whether the radiation is what would kill him/her or not.

Assuming there's a nuclear detonation, there will be some people who are beyond hope, but what about the next level of people, the ones with, say, big burns and high-exposure? Will giving them a super-dose of blood cells cure everything, or just prolong their lives? It sounds kind of cruel, but after something traumatic like that, it may be more humane to just let them go.

I guess my point is, at what point should we be content to resign ourselves to letting people die, to allow them a higher quality of life?