A baby step in a long, long march

It's in today's news that NIH has tightened the regulation on it's scientists, so they are no longer allowed to accept money from drug companies.

Responses (in the order of occurrence):

- Yeeeh, this is a great step towards the right direction that all people working in government should be working for people's interest only!

- Wait a minutes here. You mean until now, the government-hired scientists were allowed to make lucrative deals with the drug companies they were supposed to advise the government and the public about? What has kept them waiting so long?

- Why stop at the level of scientists then? Based on the same noble principle of separating the interests of society as a whole and some groups in a society, shouldn't we ban all politicians from soliciting / accepting financial contributions from any special interest group? Shouldn't all people's representatives, elected government officials work only for the people instead of whomever pays them the most (be they in the form of campaign funds, duck hunting trip, sponsorship for national party conventions and inauguration balls etc.)?

I applaud for this baby step in a long, long match!