Some of the 10 Greatest Inventions Ever – Fancy Lists
14 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in technological progress Tags: The Great Enrichment, The Great Escape, The Great Fact
On the evils of capitalism
08 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in liberalism Tags: The Great Escape, The Great Fact
Evils of capitalism http://t.co/hLzjUc5LFp—
ian leslie (@mrianleslie) November 07, 2014
Managerial Econ: Markets vs. Mother Theresa: who has done more for the world’s poor?
05 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles Tags: growth disasters, overseas aid, overseas development assistance, The Great Escape, The Great Fact
You don’t know how lucky you are: polio was a common childhood risk in the mid-20th century – not all that long before I was born
01 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in health economics Tags: anti-vaccination movement, health economics, polio, The Great Escape
When I was in high school, we read I Can Jump Puddles (1955 ) – an autobiography by Alan Marshall. He contracted polio in 1908 at the age of 6. At the time, I didn’t really notice how recent the threat of polio was.
Citizens of urban areas were to be terrified every summer when this frightful visitor returned.
Soon after Dr Jonas Salk’s vaccine was licensed in 1955, children’s vaccination campaigns were launched. In the U.S, following a mass immunization campaign promoted by the March of Dimes, the annual number of polio cases fell from 35,000 in 1953 to 5,600 by 1957. By 1961 only 161 cases were recorded in the United States.
Until the Salk vaccine was introduced, polio was considered one of the most frightening public health problems in the world:
Jonas Salk made scientists and journalists alike go goofy.
As one of the only living scientists whose face was known the world over, Salk, in the public’s eye, had a superstar aura.
Airplane pilots would announce that he was on board and passengers would burst into applause. Hotels routinely would upgrade him into their penthouse suites.
A meal at a restaurant inevitably meant an interruption from an admirer, and scientists approached him with drop-jawed wonder as though some of the stardust might rub off
Rich, educated and stupid parents are driving the vaccination crisis – LA Times
29 Oct 2014 Leave a comment
in health economics Tags: anti-vaccination movement, herd immunity, The Great Escape
In Los Angeles County, the rise in personal belief exemptions is most prominent in wealthy coastal and mountain communities.
The more than 150 schools with exemption rates of 8% or higher for at least one vaccine were located in census tracts where the incomes averaged $94,500 — nearly 60% higher than the county median.
That 8% exemption level is the point at which lack of immunization threatens herd immunity, an important factor in preventing and constraining disease outbreaks.
via Rich, educated and stupid parents are driving the vaccination crisis – LA Times.
Pollution is getting worse and worse alert: air pollution in Pittsburgh, 1940
13 Sep 2014 Leave a comment
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