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pauraque_bkDaily Kos: The Tsunami Disaster: World Scrambles To Help
That article has links to relief organizations seeking donations, and people on LJ have been providing still others.
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dien: post [AmeriCares]
chaos_rose: post [Doctors Without Borders]
elke_tanzer: post [various]
Scientific American: Polio Postponed; Politics slow polio's eradication -- and cause it to spread
Coincidentally, I just watched a PBS documentary on this very subject. The war against polio is a winnable one, not least of all because the oral vaccine can be administered in seconds, painlessly, by any volunteer with no medical training. But in addition to the anti-American paranoia described in the article, there have been ongoing difficulties coming up with the funding to keep the program going at all; it's been long enough since it was an issue in the US and Europe that people don't think of it as worthy of attention.
Another thing that struck me in the doctumentary was an Indian man who refused to let the volunteers in to vaccinate his children, complaining that every time he sees an American truck show up, it's for polio. The children are dying of so many other diseases, he said, so why is it always polio? Sad.
That article has links to relief organizations seeking donations, and people on LJ have been providing still others.
dien: post [AmeriCares]chaos_rose: post [Doctors Without Borders]elke_tanzer: post [various]Scientific American: Polio Postponed; Politics slow polio's eradication -- and cause it to spread
Coincidentally, I just watched a PBS documentary on this very subject. The war against polio is a winnable one, not least of all because the oral vaccine can be administered in seconds, painlessly, by any volunteer with no medical training. But in addition to the anti-American paranoia described in the article, there have been ongoing difficulties coming up with the funding to keep the program going at all; it's been long enough since it was an issue in the US and Europe that people don't think of it as worthy of attention.
Another thing that struck me in the doctumentary was an Indian man who refused to let the volunteers in to vaccinate his children, complaining that every time he sees an American truck show up, it's for polio. The children are dying of so many other diseases, he said, so why is it always polio? Sad.
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-28 10:09 am (UTC)That political stuff aside though, Personally, I think we cause ourselves greater problems (iow: create more deadly and harder to treat viruses and bacteria etc.) with the way we approach diseases in the modern world; I'd rather exposure and naturally acquired resistance/immunity over vaccination.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-28 12:27 pm (UTC)This is a view that is easy to take given the protections that modern medicine gives western societies in the 21st century. Yet the average life expectancy in the US increased from 49 in 1900 to 77 in 2002. Corresponding changes in cause of death statistics suggest that much of this gain has been due to improvements in communicable disease control such as antibiotics and vaccines.
Yes, there are problems associated with the use of vaccines, but the reality is that many more people would die or suffer long term side effects without them.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-28 09:05 pm (UTC)Jesus. Thank you. People do forget that modern western medicine does have its uses!
no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 02:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 02:09 am (UTC)1) my experience working in husbandry (animal breeding) and seeign the effects of viruses/bacteria over tens, sometimes hundreds of generations in different situations (with and without vaccines, with and without quarantines etc... We tend to overreact to illnesses and through that overreaction (instead of a moderate approach) we end up creating backlashes of more drug resistant bacteria, harder hittign viruses, and populations that are dependant on artificial instead of developing natural resistance early in life when the effects of the illness are mild, or the population naturally selecting for a genetic background better that helps them fight or be immune to it.
2) its spiritual. I'll no more accept a vaccine for myself than I would a synthetic pill, or glucose drip, or have an operation etc.. I've a living will to refuse all such treatment. Sure sometimes going against my beliefs would be the easy thing to do, and I've been in such situations, but when it comes to living my own life the way I understand I am suppose to, its the right thing to do.
And FWIW, the majority of people I have known have died in their 50's or earlier, and this was WITH the so called gift of prolonged suffering in hospitals that Western Medicine gave them.