Who needs health care?

Editor—Heath describes a current trend that has to be kept in check.¹ Recent research findings may strike everyone with mortal fear on occasion. Multinational companies do their bit to allay this fear by producing “antidotes” at an equally rapid pace and at “competitive prices,” lest others overtake them in their philanthropy.

Maybe if someone lands on Mars some day there will be a big hoarding showing possible health hazards, and another, equally big if not bigger hoarding, announcing what products are available as antidotes and investigative facilities, with possibly a tag mentioning that a percentage of every purchase is for the poor people of Planet Earth.

In close knit societies that take care of their weak, infirm, and old people, as in the remote villages of India and Botswana, people are not that worried as they age because they know that they will be looked after to the end. However, with families disintegrating, old and infirm people become worried because there is no one to look after them as they deteriorate—hence their desire to remain healthy, to be able to fend for themselves. Most of them do not fear death and have no desire to prolong their lives. Their fears are laid to rest by the preventive and proactive actions that they take, based on what they hear and see. Maybe a better and vetted comprehensive health education policy for the masses needs to be in place that recommends only indisputable preventive and proactive measures.