pauraque_bk: (california)
pauraque_bk ([personal profile] pauraque_bk) wrote2004-12-28 01:34 am

Tuesday.

Daily 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.

[livejournal.com profile] dien: post [AmeriCares]
[livejournal.com profile] chaos_rose: post [Doctors Without Borders]
[livejournal.com profile] 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.

[identity profile] dphearson.livejournal.com 2004-12-28 09:05 pm (UTC)(link)
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.

Jesus. Thank you. People do forget that modern western medicine does have its uses!

[identity profile] alchemia.livejournal.com 2004-12-29 02:16 am (UTC)(link)
Actually, Im very familiar with western medicine and its "uses"; its because of that familiarity that I've come to understand that it does not belong in my life.