Cuba has for several years had a promising therapeutic vaccine against lung cancer. The 55-year trade embargo led by the US made sure that Cuba was mostly where it stayed. Until—maybe—now.

The Obama administration has, of course, been trying to normalize relations with the island nation. And last month, during New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's visit to Havana, Roswell Park Cancer Institute finalized an agreement with Cuba's Center for Molecular Immunology to develop a lung cancer vaccine and begin clinical trials in the US. Essentially, US researchers will bring the Cimavax vaccine stateside and get on track for approval by the Food and Drug Administration. – Wired, May 11, 2015

More than 50 years of U.S. economic sanctions did not bring Cuba to its knees. Now, with normal relations in sight, we are learning that Cuba not only survived but may have surpassed the U.S. in some respects.

If Cimavax truly works as well as the Cubans say, then it will show one more way economic sanctions usually backfire. The American Lung Association estimates that 158,000 Americans will die of lung cancer in 2015. Cuba made its vaccine available to the public in 2011. Thousands of American lung cancer victims might still be alive had the drug become available in the U.S. at the same time.

This also illustrates the leviathan government's misplaced priorities. It continues to spend untold trillions trying to stop shadowy, shifting terrorist forces that have killed very few Americans since the war on terror began. A successful lung cancer vaccine could easily save many lives every month, and at a miniscule cost compared to the war budget.