Jamaica’s Health and Wellness Minister Christopher Tufton and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie have been very busy recently in Geneva, Switzerland, where the 75th World Health Assembly took place, ending on May 28. They have been talking a great deal about non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which as we know are rampant on the island – that is, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and other “lifestyle” conditions. I wish the press release below did not contain so much jargon, but it points to the Ministry’s focus on much-needed primary health care reform.
Minister of Health & Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton (left) chairs day one of the 34th Commonwealth Health Ministers Meeting in London on Tuesday (May 17, 2022). Seated next to him (from second left) are the Rt. Hon. Patricia Scotland QC, Commonwealth Secretary-General; Dr. Ruth Kattumuri, Senior Director for the Economic, Youth and Sustainable Development Directorate with the Commonwealth Secretariat; and Jamaica’s High Commissioner…
“We don’t know if we are just seeing the peak of the iceberg [or] if there are many more cases that are undetected in communities,” Sylvie Briand, WHO’s epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention chief, acknowledged on Friday in a briefing to countries.
Since the UK first reported a confirmed monkeypox case on 7 May, nearly 200 cases have been reported to the UN health agency in countries far from the states where the virus is endemic.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has put the number of such cases at 219.
Endemic in a number of west and central African nations, monkeypox cases have suddenly been detected in more than 20 other countries around the world, including the US, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and nearly a dozen EU countries.
The Spanish health ministry said on Friday that 98 cases had been confirmed there so far, while the UK currently counts 90 verified infections.
Portugal has meanwhile registered 74 confirmed cases, health authorities said on Friday, adding that all the occurrences are in men, mainly aged below 40.
Argentina confirmed the first two cases of monkeypox in Latin America on Friday.
“We are still at the very, very beginning of this event,” Briand told member state representatives attending the World Health Assembly in Geneva. “We know that we will have more cases in the coming days,” she said, but stressed there was no need to panic.
“This is not a disease the general public should be worried about. It is not Covid or other diseases that spread fast.”
It’s a grand ol’ tradition here in these United States.
School shootings.
Young, lone gunmen armed to the teeth. Innocent children, senselessly murdered. Teachers laying down their lives for their students. Grief-stricken families. Shattered communities.
“Thoughts and prayers”, a phrase as empty and meaningless by now as “Compassionate Conservatism”. (Remember that?)
And, perhaps even most disgusting, wacky conspiracy theories.
No, actually, one thing more disgusting than that: Impotent leaders hiding behind lame excuses for doing absolutely nothing to end all this.
More specifically, the United States Senate.
Would you like some examples? Check out this story by Mary Clare Jalonick of Associated Press:
The Uvalde shooter did not kill those children with his purported mental health struggles. He did not shoot them with estrangement; he did not murder them with malaise; he did not ravage their little bodies with the inchoate rage of his misguided youth. He killed them with a goddamn assault rifle, and high-capacity magazines, designed for the precise purpose of human annihilation.
This could be another example of how so many in the US government are considering and passing laws that drastically affect technology firms, while exhibiting extraordinary ignorance of the issues.
However, it’s more likely that the bill is just grandstanding, showing an electorate that politicians are doing something. Expect more of this on the road to the November midterms.
I'm glad I learned to express my thoughts clearly and everyone loves to read them. Sometimes it takes a lot of thinking power to think about the surroundings. Someone who likes it, someone who enjoys it, appreciates that he is writing very well. Reading and commenting on the post I wrote would give me a lot of bullshit and I would get new ideas to write new ones.
I'm really glad I got your response.
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