If you have read a few of my posts over the past couple of months, you have probably realized I’m in favor of government; I think it has a place and serves valuable functions. A few of my favorite examples (when done right) are the regulation of pollution, the oversight of food, chemical, and product safety, and police forces committed to protecting our rights.
It is distressing, therefore, when this entity that provides us the space and safety to be here — the government — doesn’t do its job, namely to protect the citizens. Because I spent many hours looking at hopeful and uplifting HIV/AIDS news earlier this month, it was particularly sad to see that the ongoing budget battles will cut funding that provides therapeutic interventions for the most vulnerable AIDS patients in this country — the poor. As we learned last time, HIV/AIDS has a disproportionate impact in Baltimore. Global AIDS funding is being cut as well, despite earlier presidential promises to the contrary. This is unfortunate, since international AIDS funding gets far more bang for the buck, so to speak, and addresses regions where the need is incomprehensible to us here in the U.S.
Just to balance things out, however, there is an initiative taking place in the Oliver neighborhood that is essentially a blitz of Baltimore City services –– filling potholes, installing smoke detectors, offering access to drug rehab services, arresting drug dealers who frequent the area, and removing trash and debris. Whether or not this is what the neighborhood needs to pull out of its perpetual slump is uncertain, and probably a matter of opinion. Clearly, though, the reason for engaging in this effort is at least an attempt to make life better for the residents, which is the role that government ought to provide.
A couple of updates in the “You Heard It Here First” category:
SARS Redux? recalled the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic of 2003 and drew an uncanny parallel to an emerging coronavirus that has been causing an alarming respiratory condition in several patients in the Middle East. Several recent news items have called attention to this condition, confirmed that it has the potential to spread from person to person, and traced the spread from the Arabian Peninsula to the United Kingdom.
Outbreak discussed the nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak linked to contaminated pharmaceutical products made by the New England Compounding Center. The outbreak is expected to continue to cause illness and death across the 20 states affected. The supply chain that provides us with the medicines we rely upon should remain under close public scrutiny or be expected to fail again.
Next time: Biking in Baltimore: awesome, terrifying, or obvious choice?
Unrelated sidebar: If you are interested in trying your hand at pottery, and possibly discussing health, politics, food, and the environment with yours truly, check out the Mesh Baltimore site this week.
