Join us for the October 13th Fireside Chat with DG Roger Paschal

 

 

This months Fireside Chat with DG Roger Paschal will feature Rotary's 35 year fight to end polio worldwide. Starting in 1979 with its first project in the Philippines through to today we've reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent. But, as most Rotarians will tell you, "we are not done" and will not be done until the final two countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan are declared "polio free" by the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization. The total elimination of polio is just as important now as it was before Covid 19 changed our world. Why?

Because, much of the infrastructure in the way of testing labs, treatment techniques and mobilization in the remotest parts of the world can and will be used against Covid 19. An example of this is the way in which scientist test water to determine if there is a wild polio virus present in local area water sources. Those testing techniques are being used today to find the Covid 19 virus by testing waste water samples. Once healthcare workers know the virus is present, they can test an isolate potential Covid 19 cases to prevent further spread.

 

So, when a community member asks "why should I donate to Rotary's End Polio Now" efforts, you can tell them, because Rotary has over 35 years experience partnering with CDC, WHO and others (including the Gates Foundation) in using their donations to effectively eliminate not just polio, but other similar diseases. While we don't yet have a vaccine to treat Covid 19, the resources developed to distribute the vaccine when it is available will be similar to the ones developed for polio. Lessons learned will be extremely useful to distributing a new vaccine to the worlds 7.6 Billion inhabitants in both the developed countries and those that lack the appropriate resources.