Annual Rotary International Convention 2008

June 16, 2008
Prepared Remarks by Tadataka Yamada, M.D., president, Global Health Program

Thank you, Wilf, for that kind introduction.

What an awe-inspiring sight.

I see thousands of people out there—more importantly, you are all representing hundreds of thousands more—united in a noble purpose: to bring health and peace to the world through Rotary International.

Your work, often unseen, has saved or improved the lives of billions of children.

I'm here today to honor you and your fellow Rotarians around the world for your heroic work on a deadly disease–polio.

In the history of polio, there are three names that are synonymous with hope and progress. Jonas Salk. Albert Sabin. And Rotary International.

It's important to note that none of them alone can account for the progress that we've made. The vaccine that Jonas Salk developed in the 1950s showed that we could indeed vaccinate against polio. Albert Sabin's work a few years later resulted in a simple oral vaccine. Yet these breakthroughs would have saved far fewer lives—had it not been for Rotary.

I'm so proud to be part of this partnership between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Rotary International.

The Gates Foundation is known for investing in science and for developing new products where none are available. But equally important, we aim to make existing vaccines or treatments more broadly available. It's not enough to have solutions in hand unless you can deliver them.

Thanks to your work, polio is an increasingly distant memory in most countries. The number of people diagnosed with polio has decreased by more than 99 percent. But as you know, polio remains a threat in parts of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria. For every person who becomes paralyzed, hundreds more may be infected but show no symptoms. Every year, 25 million children are born in India. If these children are not immunized, all of our efforts will have amounted to little.
 
Those of us who have seen the effects of polio firsthand know that we must do everything in our power to make sure this disease does not come back.

I first saw it as a young boy growing up in postwar Japan.

We lived in constant fear of the virus. Parents panicked when a child caught a cold, thinking it was the beginning of polio. No one was immune, so no one was safe.

For me, that fear was reinforced because we lived across the hall from the Maruyama family. They had two boys. The younger brother was full of energy—a typical, healthy kid. His older brother had polio. His hands were badly misshapen, and he could barely walk. You can imagine how other kids were mean to him.

Today, being the brilliant man he is, he's led a successful life. We still keep in touch—in fact, I just spoke to him last week. But seeing him next to his brother always reminds me of the damage polio can do, even when it stops short of taking a life.

One of the greatest medical and humanitarian accomplishments of all time is the fact that we've eliminated polio from most of the world, and relegated iron lungs to medical museums. More than any monument of steel or stone, this invisible monument to progress will stand long after we are gone.

But we haven't finished our work yet. Precisely because we have achieved so much, we face a new danger: the danger of stopping too soon.

Or worse—we'll have added fuel to the doubters and cynics who say that our time and money are better spent elsewhere.

The belief that Bill and Melinda Gates have expressed so eloquently—that all lives have equal value—calls us to complete this long journey. The final steps in getting any complicated job done are always the most arduous, and often, frankly, the most tedious. But now is when we must redouble our efforts. Now is when we must strengthen the world's resolve. Because stopping now would lead directly and swiftly to a resurgence of the disease.

That's why we're working with world leaders to keep polio on the global agenda...and with the leaders of the countries where polio still exists, to make sure it remains a national priority.

That's why we’re depending on you.

Already, you have given so much. Six hundred and fifty million dollars raised. Tens of thousands of volunteer hours given.

Now we're asking you to give even more, to match our foundation's $100 million for polio eradication. I have faith that you will rise to meet one of the toughest challenges of our time.

Not everyone can develop a vaccine, but everyone can help deliver it. That means printing banners, talking to neighbors, organizing outreach efforts, raising money, purchasing ice packs, or traveling to affected areas. You have a unique ability to get everyone involved.

You represent a group far larger than the number here at this convention. As the leaders in your communities, you are the top brass of a much larger army. You are motivated. You have the ability to mobilize your communities, and move your governments to action. 

If we can eradicate polio, we will prove, once and for all, that we can coordinate a massive global campaign to defeat a terrible disease. If we fail, we will give support to the skeptics who insist that taking on the eradication of diseases is a waste of time.

If we conquer polio, no goal is beyond our reach—and no disease is beyond our capacity. This is a battle we can't afford to lose!

I’d like to close by sharing with you my first encounter with Rotary. My wife Leslie's father was a Rotarian. Forty-two years ago, when I began seeing his daughter, he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse—to join him for a Rotary Club meeting.

We were in Herndon, Virginia, which was a rural area at the time. The members were mostly farmers and small businessmen, but they weren't talking about crops or local politics. They were talking about eyeballs! At first, I wasn't quite sure why we were talking about eyeballs, but I learned quickly it was a very serious discussion about how to deliver corneas to people who had lost their vision.

I was impressed by this commitment to a community beyond our own.

That is the commitment you're now making to the global community. Thanks to you, billions of children have been inoculated. Thanks to you, we know it's possible to deliver a vaccine worldwide. Your work has inspired us and raised our ambitions.

By working together, Rotary International and the Gates Foundation will make sure that no more children will be crippled or killed by polio.

Together we can do this. Thank you.