| Photo by Drknchkn via Wikimedia Commons
Part XLV of the “Back-to-Basics Governance” Series
The City of Oakland can become a new “Mecca of Medicine” if it plays its cards right. And invites more players from different ethnic backgrounds (and countries, too). By promoting the sharing of doable concepts of affordable and readily available — even to the poorest of the poor — universal healthcare done on the principles of “cooperative economics.”
But first things first. What, and where, is a “Mecca of Medicine”? And how to make it a “Moonshot”?
Scott P. Edwards wrote in the Harvard Magazine, in its November-December 2012 issue, that “Boston is a Mecca of Medicine, home to some of the most-prestigious hospitals and medical schools, physicians, and medical scientists in the world. Since the momentous day in 1846 when William Morton, a local dentist, for the first time publicly demonstrated the use of inhaled ether as a surgical anesthetic in Massachusetts General Hospital’s now-famous Ether Dome, the city has seen many medical firsts, including the first fertilization of an ovum in a test tube and the first successful human-organ transplant. Today it ranks as a preeminent center for healthcare and research. The city and its environs are home to top colleges and universities, and eastern Massachusetts, inside the Route 495 corridor, houses many leading biotechnology companies, providing both the brainpower and the cutting-edge research and product development necessary for quality care.”
To read more about the article “Boston Hospitals: Curing disease, improving lives,” please visit this link.
But the “Mecca of Medicine” that the City of Boston and its suburbs have become could not prevent the deaths of more than a million Americans and visitors to this country due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 medical tragedy is still lingering around in many countries. It was stopped primarily due to American-made vaccines that initially cost more than a hundred greenbacks to produce, and more funds were required to distribute in refrigerated containers. The vaccines need to be kept at a desired temperature to remain potent.
On April 18, 2021, this column came out with the article, How the Filipino Melting Pot Can End “Vaccine Imperialism.” Curious readers may like to reread it at this link.
“The campus of the HNU is suggested to be the epicenter of a new Mecca of Hope for people — even in the Third World — that need medical help and affordable medicines and vaccines under a doable system of universal health.“
This columnist also mentioned in the article that “vaccine imperialism” was used nearly three months earlier. Here are the paragraphs mentioned in the April 18, 2021, article about the term: QUOTE. On the other hand, I coined the term “Vaccine Imperialism.” I mentioned it in my January 28, 2021 column, with the title Biden Can Become a ‘Super Genius’ (Part V of a ‘Biden B2B Doctrine for Economic Empowerment.)
On January 31, 2021, I wrote a follow-up episode, Funding Biden B2B Doctrine’s Medical Centers to Fight Pandemics (Part VI). UNQUOTE.
Hopefully, the policy and decision-makers of the City of Oakland, the County of Alameda, and the Great Golden State of California can merely look beyond the need to save the 155-year-old Holy Names University (HNU). The vision presented is to make the City of Oakland and the County of Alameda, to which it belongs, the site of a “New Mecca of Medicine” that will be owned by stakeholders composed of faculty members, employees, government entities, patients, alumni, students, and their immediate family members.
The campus of the HNU is suggested to be the epicenter of a new Mecca of Hope for people — even in the Third World — that need medical help and affordable medicines and vaccines under a doable system of universal health. Yes, very affordable, as the medicines and vaccines will probably cost less than five percent of the wholesale prices, as set by the American pharmaceutical cartel. This will be explained in subsequent episodes of this Oakland’s HNU mini-series.
And as a downstream project, solve pestering social cancers like homelessness, substance abuse, mental ill-health, and other socioeconomic ailments.
