Combating Epidemic Ignorance

Today's column by Joe Conason is good. Here's an excerpt:

In the turbulent imagination of the hard-core conservative, American foreign policy should be about telling off the rest of the planet. According to the right-wing mind-set, a manly foreign policy would curtail any effort at seeking influence abroad, cut off assistance to developing countries, forget about improving our global image and, above all, withdraw from the existing international organizations, especially the United Nations, which is nothing more than a gargantuan waste of money and a hive of parasitic bureaucrats. Only if we brusquely and even violently dismiss the obnoxious foreigners who annoy us can we vindicate our political and moral superiority.

Then there is the real world, where we regularly encounter threats like swine flu — and where we must depend on the other people who live in this world to help protect our nation and our families. Certainly that is the outlook of America's new presidency, confirmed with profound urgency after 100 days by the sudden prospect of pandemic disease.

...At moments of actual peril, such as now, it is important to remember that the World Health Organization (WHO) is humanity's bulwark against catastrophe. Many Americans may not even be aware that the WHO, which has succeeded in protecting us, eradicating disease and reducing suffering for more than six decades, is an agency of the United Nations. As the worldwide coordinator for public health officials in every country when a pandemic looms, the agency plays an essential role — analogous to the Centers for Disease Control in the United States — that simply would not be performed otherwise. Without the WHO, this planet would be far sicker, poorer and more dangerous.