Must reads

• A December 12, 2013 The Guardian (UK) opinion piece by Richard Ashcroft pointed out issues with the G8 commitment to stopping Alzheimer's by 2025, calling it unrealistic. According to the article, "A cure by 2025? It would take that long to bring a new drug to market – if they had a good candidate, and they don't…It is nice to hear that governments want to take dementia seriously. But until they acknowledge how their policies are actually making the lives of families with dementia worse, all this is fine talk and not much else. The language of "war" in health and medical research is over-used. And if you declare war on dementia, while waging war on people affected by dementia, then do not be surprised if we are angry, not grateful."
• A December 12, 2013 The Guardian (UK) rundown of letters-to-the-editor highlighted public opinion about the G8 summit on dementia. According to one reader, "While dementia may well turn out to have biochemical or genetic causes, it is at least possible that it also has social or environmental causes. The search for a magic bullet led by clinicians and supported for obvious reasons by big pharma repeatedly directs attention away from the need to devise holistic approaches to what are almost invariably wicked problems."
• A December 12, 2013 Kaiser Health News article highlighted global coverage of the G8 dementia summit, including the Financial Times, the AP, The Telegraph and more.