Show Notes
Malaria is one of the deadliest diseases of all time - responsible for more deaths than all of humanity's wars combined. That means that the arrival of not one, but two malaria vaccines has the potential to change the future of our species. In this first episode, we’ll show you what’s at stake for millions of families across Sub-Saharan Africa, explain the economic and personal cost, and describe how the world’s first vaccine for a parasitic disease made it out of the lab, through trials, and into the lives of mothers and babies across the continent. Here’s who you’ll meet: Angus Hervey: Founder of Fix The News. Teresa Chirwa-Ndanga: Journalist & human rights activist. Dr Mary Hamel: Team Lead, Malaria Vaccines at WHO Zacharia Kafuko: Director of 1Day Africa Dr Rose Jalang'o: Head of the National Vaccines and Immunization Program, Kenya Alanta Colley: Public health worker & science communicator A Shot At History was produced by Fix The News. Series & Story Producer, Amy Davoren-Rose, Fix The News Associate Producer & Audio Director, Anthony Badolato, Hear That? Research Producer, Marcus Costello and AudioCraft. If you want to know more about this series or are interested in sharing it with your networks, send us an email: [email protected]
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How do you get the world to pay attention to a problem it thinks it's already solved? Around a billion children are exposed to dangerous levels of lead. It can be hiding in cookware, spices and cosmetics, or released through industries like battery recycling. For a child, exposure can mean losing up to six IQ points - irreversible damage that, multiplied across hundreds of millions of children, becomes an enormous drain on human potential. And yet, unlike so many global challenges, we already know how to prevent it. Meet Drew McCartor, President of Pure Earth. For the past 17 years, Drew and his colleagues have been sounding the alarm about lead poisoning: gathering evidence, understanding the scale of the problem and building the playbook for how to solve it. Now, after decades of “yelling into the void”, the world is finally paying attention - and Drew believes we have an opportunity to eliminate lead poisoning altogether. In this episode: Why around a billion children are exposed to dangerous levels of lead The surprising places lead is still hiding - from cookware to spices What losing four to six IQ points means for a child - and an entire country How a Craigslist ad led Drew from unpaid intern to President of Pure Earth Why Pure Earth spent years wondering if they were crazy The young boy in Bangladesh who brought the human cost of lead poisoning home for Drew What changed when the world finally started paying attention Why Drew believes we can eliminate lead poisoning altogether About the title: A Useful Truth comes from a 1786 letter by Benjamin Franklin about lead poisoning: “You will observe with concern how long a useful truth may be known and exist before it's generally received and practiced upon.” Almost 250 years later, it feels remarkably apt.
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