Donna Barker Communications

How would YOU spend $3.9 Billion

While so many of us in developed countries focus our attention on the not-yet-real avian flu pandemic, wringing our hands and federal budgets to figure out how to protect our own lives, the World Bank has some data to help put all of our concerns into a new perspective:

From Water, Sanitation & Hygiene

Inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene account for a large part of the burden of illness and death in developing countries:

Approximately 4 billion cases of diarrhea per year cause 2.2 million deaths, most – 1.7 million – are children under the age of five, about 15% of all under 5 deaths in developing countries.

Diarrheal diseases account for 4.3% of the total global disease burden (62.5 million DALYs). An estimated 88% of this burden is attributable to unsafe drinking water supply, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene. These risk factors are second, after malnutrition, in contributing to the global burden of disease. Continue Reading »

2005 10 10

You say “pandemic,” I say “fear mongering”

It’s flu season again! Every year, right after back-to-school season, the government, media and pharma marketers kick the flu season into high gear.

Since the small and unfortunate SARS “outbreak” that killed a few hundred people in North America two years ago, fear of a global flu pandemic has grown to well, pandemic proportions. But since SARS did not make a comeback last year, seems the dread Avian flu is the preferred poster child about which to panic – compared in most cases to the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic.

The stats to be found about deaths caused by the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic vary widely. Most researchers and writers claim that between 20 and 50 million people died…some say 20 percent of the world population succumbed to that flu, which, given the population of 1.8 billion at the time, would mean that as many as 360 million people contracted the Spanish flu. Continue Reading »

2005 10 06

We truly are a vaccine nation

Where to start? I think first, with a deep breath. Or two…or three…

I just spent a week participating in a workshop with Lynne Twist, probably the most effective individual donor fundraising in the world today and, a woman who is the embodiment of integrity. I learned more about myself in her workshop than I even knew I needed to learn!

One of the principles Lynne helped me recognize was the difference between taking a position on an issue, and taking a stand for an issue. I have long struggled with my film Vaccine Nation because although, for my own family, I hold a strong position (I will not allow myself or my son to be vaccinated), that position is not what I want to communicate in my film. I believe that all parents should make every decision about their children’s health for themselves – and, most importantly, that every decision must be a well-informed decision. Continue Reading »

2005 10 03