My inspiration to write this blog post came when I was
watching the documentary “Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates.” In the
Netflix documentary, one key point that is addressed is Bill Gates “obsession”
with the complete eradication of poliomyelitis. While many of us are way too
young to even comprehend the fear and damage caused by this virus, there are
still countries today (Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan) where mothers live
in fear of their beautiful creations contracting a very preventable disease
(CDC.gov/global health, 2019). I found it very inspiring that while most people
have chalked up the virus to being totally eradicated, a man like Bill Gates
has refused to stop his efforts until the virus is actually completely eradicated.
This documentary brings light to two
arguments. The first is that with the last documented case of polio in the USA 1979,
then why should we spend billions of dollars to eradicate a disease that is
pretty much eradicated (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2019). While the
other view is through the people in these 3rd world countries who
have to live in this fear of their children developing this preventable disease.
Bill and Melinda Gates have spent over $2 billion—yes that’s a B—on the
eradication of poliovirus (Davis Guggenheim, 2019). They have spent this money
because they believe that our current vaccine process is not sustainable and
with the complete eradication, we could save about $40-50 billion globally.
(Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2019) It is for the beneficence of everyone
that Bill and Melinda fight on. With the poliovirus still found even in small
amounts in these epidemic countries, it can be spread to surrounding countries
with less effective vaccines according to the World Health Organization (2019).
After some
reflection, I ultimately decided that Bill Gates and his wife Melinda’s efforts
to eradicate the poliovirus was not only the right thing to do, but also was
the most financially responsible option. I used the Jesuit biomedical ethical
values to analyze what was best for the general population. I believe the
biggest ethical value represented by the Gates Foundation is justice. They are
being fair to the entirety of the global nations, even those living in 3rd
world countries. It is our responsibility as future health care providers to
serve everyone regardless of their socioeconomic status or if they live in a 3rd
world country.
Reference:
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (2019). Polio.
[online] Available at: https://www.gatesfoundation.org/what-we-do/global-development/polio
[Accessed 30 Sep. 2019].
CDC.gov/global health. (2019). Polio Eradication. [online]
Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/polio/index.htm [Accessed 30
Sep. 2019].
Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill
Gates. (2019). [film] Directed by D. Guggenheim. World Wide:
Netflix.
World Health Organization. (2019). 10 facts on polio
eradication. [online] Available at:
https://www.who.int/features/factfiles/polio/en/ [Accessed 30 Sep. 2019].
Netflix has definitely stepped up its documentary game. This documentary sounds interesting and informative because I had no idea about the role of the Gates family on the eradication of polio. Their beneficence and pursuit for this hopeful eradication has allowed for programs like the Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative that began in 2013. I found an article from the American Academy of Pediatrics about how pediatricians can specifically contribute to this eradication.
ReplyDeleteThis plan highlights to stop oral polio vaccine (OPV) and initiate in its place the inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV). However, there are some challenges that this shift has to endure. For one, the cost of IPV is higher compared to OPV, raising some issues for global eradication if certain areas of the world cannot afford this vaccine. I think you raise some interesting questions about a global health initiative but it's important to consider the factors that could inhibit this. What more can be done for this to really take place in the world? We definitely should consider these questions as future health care providers.
Thanks for the read!
Orenstein, W. A. (2015). "Eradicating Polio: How the World’s Pediatricians Can Help Stop This Crippling Illness Forever."The American Academy of Pediatrics. 135(1), 196-202. doi: 10.1542/peds.2014-3163
Caleb, you have time to watch TV?!? I'm jealous! I have not watched this documentary yet, but having been exposed by the media on some of Bill and Melinda's philanthropic doings, I never really considered the approach of complete eradication of a disease. My mom has stories of kids she knew growing up who had polio and because of the vaccine it isn't something we Americans have viewed as an issue anymore. I'm guilty of that; I didn't realize that polio was still affecting other countries. But why wouldn't it? Not all countries have the resources we have obviously, so this notion that "it's not my problem anymore so it isn't a problem at all" is damaging. I find it interesting as well regarding a complete eradication; though financially it makes more sense to rid of this disease completely, is it truly possible? Can variants of certain diseases mutate, so certain diseases (like flu) can never truly be targeted due to the virus changing? I think what Bill and Melinda are doing is great, and they really have a way of thinking of justice for all in the big picture and not just what affects them in their community. I think just in that regard alone we can all learn something about providing justice and non-malfeasance in ways that are out of the norm because they are issues that we don't deal with but that doesn't mean they aren't still issues.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI saw this same documentary and loved it! I agree that this is an extremely admirable pursuit and that they are definitely making a huge difference with their resources, however, after I watched this episode I found myself wondering why polio? It does affect a lot of people like you said, and without the help of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation these people are doomed, but there are so many other diseases that are affecting many more people and on a much wider scale. For example, the top three most lethal infectious diseases in the world right now are tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and malaria--all of which do not have a known cure yet (Roser, Ochmann, Behrens, Ritchie., 2018). Although I'm not saying that they should abandon their mission to help eradicate polio (AT ALL! I think it's great), I do think that funding research for these other diseases might have a greater impact as far as money spent per lives saved. Do you have any thought as to why they invested in such a specific disease when it doesn't seem to be as much of a global issue as the others? Surely they have enough money that they could do both or even all of the above....
ReplyDeleteRoser, M., Ochmann, S., Behrens, H., Ritchie, H. (2018). Eradication of Diseases. Our World in Data: https://ourworldindata.org/eradication-of-diseases#currently-non-eradicable-diseases-for-which-eradication-might-become-possible
Caleb, I found your post very thought-provoking. Additionally, I was wondering if you looked at vaccine-derived polio as well? There are two types of polio vaccines: oral polio vaccine (OPV) and inactivated polio vaccine (IPV). IPV uses an inactive form of all three types of polio and OPV contains a weakened active form of all three types of polio (Shors). OPV is the most prevalent form of vaccination because of it is low cost and it is easy to administer in rural areas (Poliomyelitis (Polio)). The problem with OPV is in environments where there is not proper sanitation or immunity to polio, such as certain areas in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, the weakened strains can circulate for an extended period of time within contaminated water, food, or sewage. The longer it circulates, the more mutations it experiences until it mutates enough to cause paralytic polio in an unvaccinated individual who ingests the virus. This is called vaccine-derived polio (MMWR).
ReplyDeleteThere have been 24 outbreaks in 21 countries that resulted in more than 760 cases of vaccine-derived polio (Polio). Type 2 polio is the cause of 90% of vaccine-derived polio cases (Polio). While I was looking at statistics between the two types of Polio, it seems vaccine-derived polio has become much more prevalent in the past couple of years. Do you know if Bill and Melinda Gates are addressing and working to eradicate this type of polio as well? A solution could be to provide solely the IPV. Although it is more expensive, with continued funding’s they may be able to make this possible.
Additionally, I know ~72% of individuals who have polio are asymptomatic, ~24% have flu-like symptoms, and only around ~1-5% actually develop permanent disabilities from polio (Pinkbook CDC). Due to its ability to not present in a way that many of us think of polio (for example: paralytic symptoms), it is also possible that the actual number of polio cases is much higher than expected. This could be one of the many reason’s polio has been much harder to eradicate than expected, and why it was not able to be eradicated prior to 2000 like the World Health Organization announced.
“Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 17 Aug. 2017.
“Pinkbook | Polio | Epidemiology of Vaccine Preventable Diseases | CDC.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/polio.html.
“Polio.” Our World in Data, ourworldindata.org/polio.
“Poliomyelitis (Polio).” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 11 Oct. 2019, www.who.int/topics/poliomyelitis/en/.
Shors, Teri. Understanding Viruses. 2nd ed., Jones and Bartlett Learning, 2013. pp 319-336