Tag Archives: health

Fun

U.S. healthcare chart

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healthcare_reduced

This chart is the funniest thing I’ve seen so far this week. You can view the full version of it here. To be fair, it’s just something the Republicans cooked up to mock the Democrats’ plans to reform healthcare in the U.S., so it’s meant to be frighteningly complex and byzantine. Even so, it’s clear that the health care system is a huge mess that I wouldn’t want to be tangled in. I’m a libertarian, but healthcare is one of those things that I think government should provide, at least at a basic level, and for this at least, I’m glad that we have, if not exactly good, at least fairly decent public hospitals here in Malaysia.

Politics, Science

H1N1 Pandemic Fears: Justified or panic reaction?

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So the World Health Organization has declared H1N1 as a pandemic, which prompts questions of whether the fears over it are justified or a panicky over-reaction. I didn’t elaborate on the H1N1 precautions in Hong Kong in my earlier post, so let me say here that while they’re not exactly in a panic over it, it’s obvious enough that they’re taking it a lot more seriously than most people in Malaysia. Posters urging the public to take health precautions are everywhere and every time we used the subway, we were constantly bombarded by warnings and advice about respiratory diseases over the public announcements system.

One particular precaution that we found novel was placing hand sanitizers in many public areas. They seem to dispense some sort of alcohol-based disinfectant that you’re supposed to use regularly. Since the substance just evaporates, it won’t leave your hands slimy or wet. Many surfaces that you might expect members of the public to touch on a regular basis, such as escalator handrails, elevator buttons and even seats in public waiting areas had signs indicating that they’re disinfected on a regular schedule. Obviously all these measures take quite a bit of effort and money to implement, which means that they need to be justified on a cost-benefit basis.

Continue reading H1N1 Pandemic Fears: Justified or panic reaction? →

Politics

Mugabe: Cholera epidemic? What cholera epidemic?

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I’m sorry but I just can’t stop myself from posting bad news from Zimbabwe because it’s so sad that it’s comical. Anyway, in response to growing pressure from the rest of the world to send in outside troops to bring relief to the Zimbabwean people, President Robert Mugabe has announced that there is no cholera epidemic in his country, and hence no reason for any other country to mount any kind of intervention. As he says:

“I am happy to say our doctors have been assisted by others and WHO (the World Health Organisation)… so now that there is no cholera,” he said in a nationally televised speech.

That’s not what everyone else is saying, of course. Take this example from ReliefWeb:

The U.N. aid agencies report the outbreak is worsening amidst growing criminality in the country. They say security is bad and looting is on the increase, as are attacks and robberies of humanitarian aid workers.

Cholera is having a devastating impact, as 43 out of Zimbabwe’s 62 districts are reporting cases. In addition, the United Nations reports cholera is spreading to South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique.

That’s some serious chutzpah right there, comparable to the Iraqi Information Minister’s bombastic claims that there were no American troops in Baghdad on live television in 2003 even while American tanks were rolling in behind him. Let’s hope that the world will see the back of Mugabe in fairly short order so that the real work of rebuilding Zimbabwe can begin.

UPDATE: The Zimbabwean government is now saying that the cholera epidemic is still going on but claims that it is caused by a biological weapon attack orchestrated by the United States.