As
the nbcnews.com artticle here indicates, the spread of this virus
reflects how not only poorly cost based economies handle disease
prevention, but also how hard it is for the WHO to get member nations
to continue to cooperate on a long term basis.
PresidentObama is still fighting the Republicans in Congress on Extra Zika
funding; one assumes for reasons both connected to what it costs, but
also because they simply don't want to hand him something that might
make him look good in his final months as president. And then
countries who may have irradiated the Zika carrier mosquito in the
past, but have stopped funding the continuation of such programs. And
perhaps even worse, have been dragging their feet in the monitoring
and reporting of new disease developments.
One
thing that I think the UN ought to consider, quite apart from whether
they drop Capitalism or not, is the idea that, if you don't full
participate in UN sanctioned health, or humanitarian programs, you
lose the rights of membership in the world body. Conversely, if they
do make serious efforts to comply, but are hampered by a lack of
funds, then the more prosperous nations of the West need to step up
and aid them, on, say, some kind of matching dollar basis to ensure their commitment.
What
we are really talking about here has a very basic, bottom line,
reality. The factors concerning world health have no borders. A
disease spreading in one place is all too soon a disease spreading
all over the map. As such it is in every one's interest to treat
world health issues as a major priority in their national security.
To do other wise is an unbelievable, as well as immoral, act of
omission.
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