Zika, Cuba, American Politics

‘Why is Zika so important that you write about it often?’ I have gotten that question many times.
An update on the Zika situation follows. But first, let me offer an explanation as to why I write about it.
I believe that health issues and disease threats offer us the chance to assess the functioning of a political system. SARS, Ebola, bird flu, and now Zika show whether or not the political system can be proactive. The quality of governance of a country is revealed, and its functionality or lack of same becomes measurable in statistics of suffering, illness, and death. Such is the case now in America as we clearly see that our elected political leaders utterly failed, at a critical juncture, to grasp the magnitude of this threat. Our elected Democrats and Republicans are at fault. They own the outcomes.
Health issues allow for demonstrations of leadership success or leadership failure. Success requires the government and the private sector to engage in a proactive joint effort. Consider the polio vaccine or measles or tuberculosis treatment. Think about pneumonia shots or the shingles vaccine. How did these things happen? How are they funded? Why are they now ubiquitous? Why are we older folks healthier and more protected against illness than we have ever been?

This post was published at FinancialSense on 10/04/2016.