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Post by sherri on Jan 3, 2017 21:25:22 GMT
2016-the media bombarded us with coverage of celebrities who died.
Maybe it just shows our skewed priorities. I've been reading about this man who died in 2016. He didn't get half the publicity, his photo wasn't splashed across double pages, yet I'm guessing he did a lot more to change the world than any of the celebrities.
Dr Donald Henderson. An American doctor of Scottish-Canadian heritage, whose work helped eradicate smallpox from the world. From a report:
Out of all the people who died last year, Dr. Henderson may have made the greatest contribution to modern society, the eradication of smallpox.
For most of us, the only time we even think about smallpox is when we notice the little scar on our arm, and most of the younger generations don’t even have that. In the 20th century alone smallpox claimed the lives of more than 300 million people. Since the days of the pharaohs smallpox has been a plague on our society. For millennia every generation attempted to fight the disease through prevention, quarantine, and eventually vaccination.
In the 1960s Dr. Donald Henderson lead a small group of heroes known as the Smallpox Eradication Unit. At the time 2 million people were dying from smallpox every year. Now 0 people die from smallpox, and the last recorded death was in 1979. A man who’s contribution was so great, no one even remembers it.
I wouldn't say the last sentence is correct, obviously people do remember, but it is true these sorts of people rarely get anything like the publicity of our media heroes.
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Post by lola on Jan 4, 2017 6:59:26 GMT
What an absolute tragedy to not give this guy much mention! I don't understand why not? This is something worthy of noting. Glad you gave this Doctor a good mention Sherri.
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Post by mrp on Jan 4, 2017 11:38:37 GMT
Great post sherri. As much as I like David Bowie or Princess Leia, Dr Henderson's work was more important.
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Post by DADDY O on Jan 4, 2017 12:11:21 GMT
It is a good post Sherri, but when I read it, it reminded me of a story an American girl told me years ago.
She said when she was younger she had a few dates with a British Man. I think she said his name was "Andy". After a few dates she decided to sleep with him, so after a nice romantic dinner he took her to his house, offered some wine and put on some romantic music.
One thing led to another and they ended up in his bedroom. When he took off his shoes and socks she noticed his feet were somewhat mangled. She asked him "What happened to your feet"? He said, "When I was very young, I had a bad case of Tolio". She responded, "Don't you mean Polio"? And he said no, Tolio".
Well, she slumped it off as to the language barrier between Brits and Yanks. The man then took his pants off and she noticed his knees were bashed in. She said "OMG, what happened to your knees"? The man responded that when he was 14 he had a terrible case of "Kneasles". She said "Kneasles"? Don't you mean "Measles"? He responded with "No, no......it was Kneasles".
By now she is getting a little freaked out, so when he pulled off his underwear she looked in disbelief. Her response was "Let me guess........a bad case of Smallcox"?
So, thank god for the work of Dr. Henderson.
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