We all know that the anopheles mosquito causes malaria and that malaria kills half a million people a year. What if we could eradicate the anopheles mosquito and save so many lives, for down the road that would be many people indeed? Well we can. In fact the Bill Gates Foundation which has been so active in fighting malaria has made the technique behind all this a centerpiece of their anti-malaria effort. It’s a form of genetically modified organism called gene drive. Whereas genetic engineering usually affects one generation and may or may not be passed on, gene drive is passed Continue reading “Gene Drive, GMOs and Species Extinction”
Category: Social Issues
68.5 Million Refugees
Being an immigrant is very difficult. I know from experience what it’s like to leave everything you know and have behind and go towards an unknown. And in our case we didn’t have to pay smugglers, we didn’t have to walk across borders, we had passports, visa, purchased our own plane fares and weren’t fleeing war. So when I read that the number of refugees and displaced persons from wars and persecutions has reached 68.5 million, I shudder. These are 68.5 million lives which have been Continue reading “68.5 Million Refugees”
Health Insurance Companies and Profits
Health care is a big consumer concern and health care costs an even bigger one. As is already known, the US spends more per person on health care and gets less than other developed nations. And then there’s the fact that one in 5 of every person currently being pursued by collection agencies is for medical debt. The issue of rising costs is proverbially complex, and in part why ProPublica, the investigative reporting site in conjunction with NPR conducted an examination which puts a finger on how Continue reading “Health Insurance Companies and Profits”
Eyeglasses For The World’s Poor
The headline in a NYT story was arresting, “A Simple way to Improve a Billion Lives: Eyeglasses. Poor eyesight is not the kind of problem that usually makes headlines and yet according to the WHO it costs $200 billion a year in productivity. Poor eyesight means that truck drivers in Nigeria and drivers in India drive without seeing what they need to see and end up causing more accidents, many involving fatalities. It means that school children who can’t see to do their school work properly are Continue reading “Eyeglasses For The World’s Poor”