The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is NOT pointless.

So first I'm going attack my opponents original arguments, then I'm going to reconstruct my own case. It spreads the word. It doesn't matter if it spreads the word if the cause is pointless at the moment. And people knew what ALS was, they just knew it as Lou Gehrig disease. It's cheap and easy to do. Not if you live in California, south Oregon, west Nevada, parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado,[1] as well as central Texas[2], which are all going through extreme and exceptional drought conditions. Are you saying that because it's easier to do the ALS challenge, it's more important then food banks? Awareness is being raised for the disease. I would like to point out that my opponents first and third contentions are basically the same argument, so my rebuttal for the first contention works here too. Donations. Just because a large amount of money is going to a cause doesn't mean the cause is going to be beneficial. Upwards to billions dollars have gone into ALS research, and all we have to show for it is one drug that only extends the patients life span by a few months. Celebrities. Call me cynical, but I believe the only reason most celebrities are endorsing this is for attention and vanity. And like I've been saying, just because money is going to something doesn't mean it's going to be beneficial. MY CASE. Argument 1. The government is already helping by putting 40 million dollars into research. And it's great that people want to help, it's just to bad that it took a tacky add, some vanity, and celebrities to convince them. (Things causes for Ebola and Syria don't have)Argument 2. All your link showed me is that scientist now have an outline of how ALS does what it does. That does make us any closer to finding a cure, or improving treatment. Argument 3. Just about one and a half million people were diagnosed with cancer in 2008 alone[3]. Over a third of them died. If we look at the number of deaths, cancer needs the donations more. Asking me to imagine if a family member is dying of a disease is a terrible argument because 1. you don't know me. For all you know my dad could have ALS. 2. your question poses no relevance. And 3. I can ask you "how would you feel if one of your family members was dying of Ebola. " I haven't insulted your intelligence, please don't insult mine. Argument 4. I'm now going to quote from the article. "The first human trial for an investigational Ebola vaccine is set to begin this week. " "The phase 1 clinical trial set to begin this week at the NIH clinical center in Bethesda, Maryland, will involve 20 human subjects between the ages of 18 and 50, according to the NIH. " Human trials are a huge step forward in discovering a vaccine, and then eventual cure for a disease. These can then be mass produced and sent all over the world. Argument 5. It's pointless because with the billions of dollars that have been funded into ALS research in the past 73 years, we have come up with next to nothing. And thus it is extremely unlikely anything beneficial will happen with the ice bucket challenge. I am suggesting a counter plan where we take the limited resources we have and put them where they will contribute to the greater good, where they will be most beneficial. Argument 6. I've already covered most of this in my rebuttal of argument 4, but I will once again point out that the government funds 40 million dollars into ALS. Sources1- . http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu... 2-. http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu...3- . http://www.lungcancersymptoms.org...