Before yesterday, I had never heard of Paul Farmer, but now I think he was an absolute hero. He was a champion for the poor, who argued that their life and their health care was as important as the health care received by the rich. He started an initiative to treat drug resistant tuberculosis in a rural community in Haiti and it was crazy to see the response from other people fighting TB. They argued that it was too expensive and that the people in developing worlds shouldn't expect this treatment, even though it existed. Then Paul's best friend, Dr. Jim Yong Kim realized that the drugs weren't even under patent anymore. They were able to bring down the cost by 90%. Life altering.
They both worked for an organization called Partners in Health. Appropriately named, because their focus was on using community health workers to help developing nations help themselves. They used the model established for TB to fight AIDS, then Ebola and then Covid. I just watched a movie produced by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck called Bending the Arc. It is based on the quote by Martin Luther King Jr, "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice". (They were helping bend the arc faster.)
Their fight was helped (especially initially) by Thomas White and his wife Lois, who donated $75 million to charity.
Later the causes they fought for also were helped by presidents George W Bush, Clinton and Obama.
Much of Paul Farmers work was based in Haiti, then Peru and then Rwanda, where he died in his sleep a couple of nights ago.
“I’m surprised he died in his sleep,” said Tassone. “Because he rarely slept.”
What an amazing human being.
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