Right now we have a very active global pandemic of a very dangerous infectious disease. People are getting in on every continent populated by human beings. Western Hemisphere has millions of people are getting sick and commerce is slowing down to a near standstill. The slowed economic state has presented many problems when trying to deliver life-saving measures to people who live in remote or impoverish areas. The disease has hit Indigenous Populations particularly hard in North and South America. When a closer lens is used we find that poverty is an unlying problem with health conditions. The ability to get fresh food regularly becomes a factor. Families under the poverty line usually eat meals low in nutrients and high in starches and preservatives. These diets lead to hypertension and diabetes. Even when doctors warn they should change diets to include more fresh fruits and vegetables impoverish and suppressed people simply can not find the economic resources to support the medical advice. The people in this group have to decide between food, medication and rent. The basic situation leaves the people with a potential immune deficiency. The COVID19 pandemic comes along and more privileged groups now say there is a genetic deficiency in and which brings more oppression and bigotry to this group because they are being told that their culture and ancestry was weak and is leaving them to be a liability on society.
People with disabilities suffer from many of the same economic problems because they have designated to not be able to work or take care of themselves in the same traditional ways. The privileged people in society literally dictate. to these people how much money they are allowed to make leaving them in a precarious situation to decide over if they pay rent, buy food or medication. The situation and diet lead to a path with deficient immune systems. Like the group above, they need protection from the virus and other diseases.
When the vaccine for this virus is available should the people below the poverty line receive the first dose? This is the group that is the most vulnerable. Does it make sense to treat them first? Because of economics, should we build a universal healthcare system that eliminates having to buy medicine? What would a system that ensures every human being on the planet is healthy look like? Should that system just treat the sick or should it offer preventions to disease? Would that same system offer protection to the masses in a pandemic? This is a long list of demands and questions. Would a system like this tear down a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry. Medications could be distributed based solely on need and not by the ability to pay. Cures for disease could be a secondary thought, and our first thought could truly be on disease prevention. Illness does not discriminate. Economics is the path of discrimination. By limiting who has money, limitations are placed on who has health. If we place a real value on health and disease prevention, maybe we can provide health to many more people. Maybe our Global Society can find balance and protocols that can ensure the best of health to everyone on our planet.
Listen to “WHO Media Update Aug 6” on Spreaker.
