WSJ: Polio and Rotary

Wall Street Journal ^ | April 12, 2005 | Editorial

[OESY]

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Salk polio vaccine. Poliomyelitis, also know as infantile paralysis, used to be one of childhood's most feared diseases. A few years after Dr. Jonas Salk announced his vaccine on April 12, 1955, nearly every child in the U.S. was protected. Today polio has disappeared from the Americas, Europe and the Western Pacific....

A too-little known part of this feat is the role played by Rotary, the international businessman's club, which 20 years ago adopted the goal of wiping out the disease. Rotary understood that medical breakthroughs are worthless unless people aren't afraid to immunize their children and efficient delivery systems exist to get the vaccine to them. And so it mobilized its members in 30,100 clubs in 166 countries to make it happen.

In 1985, when Rotary launched its eradication program, there were an estimated 350,000 new cases of polio in 125 countries. Last year, 1,263 cases were reported. More than one million Rotary members have volunteered their time or donated money to immunize two billion children in 122 countries. In 1988, Rotary money and its example were the catalyst for a global eradication drive joined by the World Health Organization, Unicef and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. In 2000 Rotary teamed up with the United Nations Foundation to raise $100 million in private money for the program. By the time the world is certified as polio-free -- probably in 2008 -- Rotary will have contributed $600 million to its eradication effort.

An economist of our acquaintance calls Rotary's effort the most successful private health-care initiative ever. A vaccine-company CEO recently volunteered to us that the work of Rotary and the Gates Foundation, both private groups, has been more effective than any government in promoting vaccines to save lives....

[goldstategop]

It was a triumph born of hope over adversity. Today we read about polio in the history books and the dreaded iron lung, is thanks to Dr. Jonas Salk and those who worked to find a way to prevent the disease, is an anachronism. We can tame Nature and allow people to live happier and healthier lives. One has to pay special tribute to the nation that made it possible. Americans have always refused to take "NO" for an answer. Its our heart-felt idealism that makes our land and the rest of world, day by day, a better place in which to live.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[LibertarianInExile]

F the World Health Organization! Rotary (and private charitable action) kicks butt!

[ccmay]

Polio would already have been conquered if the ignorant Muslim savages of Nigeria had not refused immunization, on the grounds that it was a Jewish plot to steal the penises of their sons.

A decade or more of progress was rolled back thanks to the stupidity and bigotry of the Religion of Peace.

-ccm