A Few Readings on the Ebola Outbreak

Greg Laden, writing at ScienceBlogs, addresses the argument that diseases like malaria still pose a greater threat in Africa than the Ebola virus, and whether Ebola is taking attention away from other diseases (at least one person went so far as to call Ebola the “Kardashian of diseases”). Africa is a big place, and while it’s easy to say that malaria is a bigger danger than Ebola in places that have few or no Ebola cases, the same cannot be said in the countries that are directly being affected right now. Laden looked at the annual death rate due to malaria in Liberia, Guniea, and Sierra Leone, divided those numbers by twelve to get an estimated monthly rate, then compared those numbers to the average number of deaths per month in the 3-6 months of the Ebola outbreak:

  • Liberia: 142 malaria, 92 Ebola
  • Guinea: 49 malaria, 67 Ebola
  • Sierra Leone: 145 malaria, 144 Ebola

It’s not the most scientific survey, but it does indicate that while of course malaria is a huge problem, Ebola is a crisis in those countries right this second.

Laden also addresses the question of resource allocation:

[C]onsider the thought experiment where you have $10,000,000 that you want to give to either developing an Ebola vaccine, or a Malaria vaccine. Since billions have been spent on developing a Malaria vaccine and there still isn’t one, your donation would be a drop in the bucket. Retrospectively, it would be equivalent to something like the combined costs of couriers and mail by researchers working on a Malaria vaccine over the last few decades. Or the cost of coffee and donuts in the break room. Or conference travel fees. Or something like that. The point is, a bunch of millions of dollars might actually produce an Ebola vaccine given the starting point we have now, or at least, move us a good deal in that direction.

At Quartz, Gregg Gonsalves writes about people’s tendency, when faced with something unfamiliar and scary, to focus on the personal: Continue reading

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It is always better to stand for something than to stand for what you are not

Apluslogo-300x300A serious issue with the concept of atheism as a social movement is that the word “atheism” doesn’t actually say anything other than one thing a person doesn’t believe. Not believing in gods (not just the Judeo-Christian God, mind you) doesn’t say much of anything else about a given person. It is certainly true that some atheists have embraced their viewpoint as a means of scoring points in arguments, but that is only one group out of many. Many people seek a broader approach, using reason, critical thinking, and compassion to improve conditions in the world.

Jen McCreight, with the help of some of her readers, has proposed some new branding that explicitly embraces a broader set of concerns. They are calling it Atheism+.

We are…

Atheists plus we care about social justice,

Atheists plus we support women’s rights,

Atheists plus we protest racism,

Atheists plus we fight homophobia and transphobia,

Atheists plus we use critical thinking and skepticism.

It speaks to those of us who see atheism as more than just a lack of belief in god.

For my part, my identity as an atheist hasn’t been defined in negative terms—by what I do not believe—for a long time. I tend to prefer the word “humanist” to describe myself, because at least that offers a positive set of principles. The idea of something like “Atheism+,” despite its slightly kitschy “2.0” feel and an uncomfortable parallel to “Catholicism Wow!,” seems like a big step in the right direction.

Photo credit: Atheism+ logo, via FreeThoughtBlogs.

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