Scott Addressed Global Health Care Concerns

Cheryl Scott, senior adviser for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, presented to address issues in closing the inequitable gaps in health care that exist in developing countries yesterday in front of Washington State University and University of Idaho Extensions.

Washington State University Extensions hosted the event. WSU and UI are land grant institutions, which are institutions of higher education with land provided by the government. Because of its land grant status, they have Extensions programs, in order to informally educate residents throughout their state regarding the research conducted through the institutions.

“Health care isn’t something I think about every day,” Extension Educator Valdasue Steele said. “She brought up things I never thought of before.”

Scott has devoted the majority of her life to raise awareness on issues like what she spoke of yesterday: providing and creating awareness for vaccinations, and eliminating the burdens of illness on developing nations. According to Scott, the main issue is accelerating the access and working these practices into burdened nations.

Scott addressed alarming inequities in health care around the world, such as the difference in malaria infections in the United States, zero per year, and Nigeria, with 57 million cases each year. The science and technology are available: RTSS is a vaccination planned to debut 2012 that is capable of eliminating 60 to 70 percent of malaria cases if vaccinated as a child, according to Scott, but the issue is whether or not people will adapt and accept the vaccinations.

The syndicated speech pulled viewers across the state into the Compton Union Building Auditorium. Washington viewers from Spokane to Mt. Vernon, were able to ask Scott questions following her presentation. One caller addressed these issues and asked Scott how to tap into cultural resources in order to learn. Scott admitted that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation does not devote large amounts of resources to developing an understanding of other cultures and how to infiltrate them, but knows many partnered institutions who are focused in it.

Though Scott attempted to tie in the health issues with the predominately veterinary- and agriculture-based audience by connecting many of the worlds diseases and their origins to animals, she lost touch with viewers. A University of Idaho Extension Specialist applauded Scott’s efforts, but found nothing personally useful in the speech.