I would question how close they really are, but regardless, even if they found a cure tomorrow, if the cure can't also be used to develop cures for other viruses, it was still probably not the best use of those research dollars. A sliver of the money towards prevention and dump those research dollars into diseases that can't be prevented and you probably end up with greater value.
As far as breast cancer, it receives more funding, both from gov't funding and donations than any other cancer, both on a per incidence and per death basis (much more on a per death basis). And because of its visibility, I would bet that there are more breast cancer related charities that have turned it into more of a profit making business than a charitable activity.
But I'm not saying anything should be done about it; I was just pointing out that I thought Patdog missed what the commenter was saying. I do think the commenter is right that the way we prioritize fundraising right now doesn't make a lot of sense, but I'm not sure there's really a way to fix it.