​Let us not forget history’s lessons
This morning, it was announced that the U.S. would no longer fund Gavi, previously the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. Gavi is a 25-year-old global partnership that has vaccinated over a billion and is responsible for saving tens of millions of lives from a wide range of diseases from Covid-19 and Ebola, to polio and measles.
On this day in 1953, Dr. Jonas Salk announced the successful creation of the polio vaccine. The prior year, millions were infected annually by this devastating childhood disease. But by the 1960s, polio was largely eradicated in the U.S. and since then, around the entire world. This is considered one of the greatest public health achievements in history, proving the incredible societal benefits of vaccines.
We weigh this against the preventable measles outbreaks beginning to take hold around the nation, already detected in 18 states. This is an extremely infectious disease the U.S. had once declared eradicated 25 years ago due to the success of its vaccine.
As the war in Gaza extends into its 18th horrific month, we recall that on this day in 1979, the Egypt-Israel peace treaty was signed, proving that an enduring peace can be achieved by long-time fierce enemies in the Middle East.
On this day in 1812, Elbridge Gerry – the governor of Massachusetts, and later the Vice President of the United States, signed a bill that created a partisan voting district in Boston. The district created by Mr. Gerry resembled the shape of a salamander, upon which, the term gerrymander was born.
Two centuries later, largely unchecked gerrymandering deploying greater creativity has threatened to upend the principle that in our democracy, voters select their representatives rather than the other way around.
Finally, another extraordinary political milestone, on this day 25 years ago, Vladimir Putin was elected President of the democratic state of Russia.
