Good morning, Hank, it's Tuesday.
Bonus video time!
So while I was in Ethiopia, I filmed several
videos where I talked to Bill Gates about
stuff.
In this one, we talk about healthcare.
I'm gonna be uploading these every Tuesday
for the next month or so - a couple hours
before my regular Vlogbrothers video, so enjoy
the bonus!
And, you know.. the Bill Gates.
John: I'm wondering if you could just kind
of talk me through what you just saw and what
your questions were, and what you find encouraging
about that, and, and any concerns that you
have?
Bill: These primary healthcare facilities
are how we've taken childhood death down from
about 25% of all children to now about 5%.
Getting the vaccines out so that every child
gets all these vaccines, that's really hard,
they have to be kept cold, and of course,
most poor kids live in very rural areas, where
there's not very good roads, not many trained
workers.
So Ethiopia created this system where at the
lowest level, there's a health-post, and here,
we're at this health center.
Some of the regions, particularly where people
are pastoral and move around a lot, that's
still where they have less than 30% vaccination
rates.
The rest of the country is up at about 75%,
and there's a plan to get it up to 90%.
John: So can you talk about a little bit about
how, how we know that the reduction in infant
mortality is related to this dramatic improvement
in sort of last mile healthcare delivery?
Bill: The statistics from poor countries are
often very poor.
The one statistic that's really good is the
number of children who die.
Tragically, in a lot of countries, uh, that
was very very high, and because it was a limited
number of infectious diseases, by getting
the right vaccines to these poor countries,
we've cut those death rates down a lot.
Another huge tragedy beyond death, is that
even the kids who survive don't physically
or mentally fully develop, and there you've
got to lower the burden of the disease a lot.
You've got to get good sanitation, and you've
got to get good food.
Now, the other thing about health is that
as more children survive, amazingly, mothers
choose to have less children.
And so, the whole population growth challenge,
which is: Can I feed?
Can I educate?
Can I provide jobs?
That becomes more achievable, and then you
get out of the poverty trap.
And so, health is not the only thing, but
it is, in my view, the central thing, the
thing you really have, you have to get that
right, or else the country will not be able
to, uh, keep its children alive and support
itself.
