Is it true that the author of the famous phrase about silicone and drugs for male potency is Nobel laureate Drauzillio Varella?

For many years now, a witty statement about the uneven distribution of health care costs, signed by a prominent Brazilian scientist, has been circulating on the Internet. We have verified the correctness of this attribution.

The phrase, attributed to Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine Drausillio Varella, reads in full as follows: “Today in the world we invest five times more money in drugs for male potency and in silicone for women’s breasts than in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. In a few years we will have old women with big breasts and old men with strong penises, but none of them will be able to remember what they are for.”

This quote can be found on resources such as “Peekaboo", JoyReactor, "Proza.ru" And "Pearls of thought" It gained particular popularity on social networks - the phrase was shared on Facebook (some publications were reposted 209, 126, 115 And 73 once), "VKontakte", Twitter And "Odnoklassniki"

Dementia is a syndrome in which there is degradation of memory, thinking, behavior and the ability to perform everyday activities. By data According to WHO, there are about 50 million people with dementia in the world, and 60-70% of cases are caused by a form called Alzheimer's disease.

It is easy to assume that such a large scale of the disease entails high costs. Thus, only in the USA for the care of people with Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia in 2022 spent $321 billion (of which $206 billion came from the government programs Medicare and Medicaid), $271 billion is estimated at unpaid care provided by friends and relatives. And dementia-related costs worldwide, according to WHO, back in 2019 were $1.3 trillion (including unpaid care) and that number will only grow. At the same time, 75% of expenses were attributed to Alzheimer's disease. How notes Alzheimer's Disease International, "if global dementia care were a country, it would be the 14th largest economy in the world."

As for the global market for breast implants, its volume, according to a report from an authoritative resource Research and Markets, in 2022 was estimated at $2.09 billion. The global turnover of drugs for erectile dysfunction is slightly higher - $3.21 billion last year, according to ReportLinker. Thus, from a factual point of view, the quote is catastrophically far from the truth. However, we are more interested in its authorship.

In the entire history of the Nobel Prize, not a single representative of Brazil has been awarded it, regardless of the field of activity. Medical websites also know nothing about a doctor named Drauzillio Varella. True, in Sao Paulo there lives a fairly well-known oncologist and popularizer of medicine in the press and on television, whose name is Drauziu Varella. It has regularly updated website, where, among others, you can find lectures about Alzheimer's disease. Varella himself has come to the attention of fact checkers more than once. So, in 2020 it became widespread video, in which he essentially called for abandoning self-isolation during the coronavirus pandemic (the doctor later admitted his mistake, citing a sharp change in the dynamics of the incidence), and in 2022 supposedly advocated for the use of drugs by children (here he became a victim of editing). However, if in these cases it was possible to talk about at least some video materials, then we do not find a quote about Alzheimer’s disease, implants and drugs for potency either on the scientist’s website or in other authoritative sources. Moreover, in one of the articles on her website, Varella speaks with respect about breast implants, speakingthat they have helped many women.

Despite this, the quote was widely circulated as English language and in Portuguese. Of course, rumors about the statement attributed to him could not help but reach the doctor himself. When in 2009, during an interview with a Spanish radio station, the host introduced Varella, reading exactly the phrase being tested, he stated: “I have no idea how much money is invested in treating Alzheimer's disease. And I would never say such rude things. Even in a tavern." Three years later by Varella denied and the administrator of his official website after receiving the relevant question by email.

Where did the phrase we are interested in about the costs of treating Alzheimer's disease, erectile dysfunction and plastic surgery come from? In Russian, Dr. Varella began to be mentioned as an author in the early 2010s (and at first they used the correct transcription of his name - Drausio), and in the 2009 version, the statement was attributed to another (this time real) Portuguese-speaking Nobel laureate, writer José Saramago. However, much earlier, in 2005, this quote had already been published as a joke. collections of jokes without attribution and with other numbers in the statistics provided.

In Portuguese, Varella’s native language, the phrase being tested was accompanied by the note “author unknown” back in 2006, but no later than January 2007 it was began to be attributed eminent doctor from Sao Paulo. Apparently, it was on Portuguese-language sites that this attribution first appeared, which later became ubiquitous.

Finally, on English-language sites this phrase (as a joke and without attribution) was mentioned back in 2002, and a year earlier was included in the book by David Levy (under the pseudonym Dyvad Yvel) “You received a funny letter", compiled from humorous messages that the author had sent by e-mail over the previous five years. This method of distributing entertainment information was very popular in the 90s of the last century, when there were still few websites, and fast Internet was an unaffordable luxury for most users. Similarly, the fictional Neil Armstrong quote "Good luck to you Mr. Gorski!" and also Kurt Vonnegut speech about the benefits of sunscreen (both of these quotes were discussed by Verified earlier). It was during this period that, apparently, the roots of the statement under study, which has nothing to do with the Brazilian doctor Drausio Varella, go back.

Cover photo: palestrativa.com.br, social networks

Incorrect quote attribution

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