I think it's a combination of things. -- ALS is a syndrome with which many people are at least passively aware -- it's "Lou Gehrig's Disease", etc. So "raising awareness" is more a matter of reminding people (easy) than educating them about something of which they know nothing (hard); -- it has a catchy name (ALS) -- much easier to remember than Pontine Giloma; -- Most importantly, people see the ice bucket challenge as a fun thing, and it's perfectly suited to "going viral" on social media. The person or people who thought it up happened, for whatever reason, to be interested in ALS. The virality of the challenge has nothing to do with ALS & everything to do with how much people enjoy watching other people get buckets of ice water poured on their heads.
jrs On Aug 21, 2014, at 11:44 PM, SS wrote: > On Thu, 2014-08-21 at 14:29 -0400, John Sundman wrote: >> Surely humankind is capable of addressing more than one problem at a >> time? > > Yes, but that is a general reply that does not answer my specific > question? Why ALS? Why not, for example, Pontine Glioma? > > shiv > >
