I am in a glum mood today. The inability of our government to do the most basic tasks like sort out a water system or put in some bike lanes depresses me. Thankfully emotions are like the weather, and in a while, this gloom shall make way for the bright rays of emotional sunshine. Something that did lift my mood was the news that polio has been eradicated in Africa. From the Irish Times:
Water-borne infection at one point paralysed 75,000 children each year across the continent.
Africa was declared free of wild polio on Tuesday, leaving Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan as the only countries thought to still have the highly infectious, water-borne virus.
The World Health Organisation says it is just the second time a virus has been eradicated in Africa, after the elimination of smallpox four decades ago.
Hooray, take that polio ya prick! A huge thank you to Mr Bill Gates who financed a large chunk of the work. The Gates Foundation shows what is possible if we put our minds to a task and give it proper funding.
I await the conspiracy theory comments about Bill Gates and vaccines.
“Lining up for vaccination” by hdptcar is licensed under CC BY
I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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