Skip to content

On the Death of My Hero

2022-02-22 · letter vlog · John · 3:54 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Global development · mode: Personal essay · tags: heavy topic, timely hook, fundraising ask, calendar ritual

Mourning Partners In Health co-founder Paul Farmer, his friend and mentor, John tells how Farmer and his partners proved the world wrong again and again (HIV treatment in poor communities, MDR-TB, a world-class hospital in Haiti, maternal care in Sierra Leone) and argues that, like Paul, we should never be satisfied with progress amid such injustice.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The planned P4A video set aside: news of Paul Farmer's death in Rwanda

  • ★★ Today's video was going to be something silly about the Project for Awesome fundraiser, which begins at midnight tonight. — 00:00:00 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ John learned yesterday that Partners In Health co-founder Dr. Paul Farmer died in his sleep in Rwanda at 62. — 00:00:00 · Partners In Health
  • ★★★ Farmer devoted his life to health-care access for the poorest; a husband and father, he was a friend and mentor to many, John among them; John is devastated for his family. — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — The 2001 USAID claim, PIH's HIV care and Farmer's case for treating MDR-TB

  • ★★★ In 2001 the head of USAID told Congress he opposed extending antiretroviral therapy to impoverished countries, saying it would fail because the drugs need a schedule and 'these people' don't know clocks. — 00:00:29 · United States Congress

    “these people do not know what watches and clocks are”

  • ★★★ John calls that a lie already exposed: under Farmer, PIH pioneered comprehensive HIV care in very poor communities and, with community health workers, showed outcomes like those in rich countries. — 00:00:58 · Partners In Health

  • ★★ Today over 12,000 people in Haiti receive HIV treatment in PIH-supported facilities. — 00:00:58 · Partners In Health
  • ★★ In Sierra Leone the average monthly rate of people returning for ongoing HIV care is over 99.9%. — 00:01:27 · Sierra Leone
  • ★★ Farmer helped make the case that treating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is necessary even when expensive or logistically complicated. — 00:01:27 · tuberculosis
  • ★★★ Paul Farmer (quoted): In Infections and Inequalities, which John calls brilliant, Farmer wrote that opposing aggressive MDR-TB treatment in poor countries values lives differently: its advocates would never accept that death sentence. — 00:01:27 · tuberculosis

00:01:56 — Partnership; proving the world wrong in Haiti and Sierra Leone; inequities persist and cannot wait

  • ★★★ John says Farmer was never alone: partnership, built into PIH's name, with hospitals, governments, philanthropists and above all fellow clinicians, was the foundation of his work. — 00:01:56 · Partners In Health
  • ★★★ Paul and his partners proved the world wrong: told HIV couldn't be treated in poor communities or Haiti couldn't have a world-class hospital, Farmer led the building of the University Hospital in Mirebalais. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ Told nothing could be done about one in 17 Sierra Leonean women dying in pregnancy or childbirth, Farmer said otherwise; so the community came to support PIH's maternal and child care center at Koidu. — 00:02:26 · Sierra Leone, maternal death, Nerdfighteria, Partners In Health, Maternal Center of Excellence, Koidu Government Hospital
  • ★★★ Child and maternal mortality are the lowest in human history and health systems are strengthening even in very poor communities, but profound health inequities persist. — 00:02:55 · child mortality, maternal death, health equity
  • ★★★ Paul was never satisfied with progress amid such injustice and we shouldn't be either: health-care access and justice cannot wait, and his partners will carry his legacy forward. — 00:02:55 · health equity

00:03:24 — Links to the conversation, the P4A and PIH; 'hard work with friends'

  • ★★ John links in the doobly-doo his November conversation with Paul and another PIH colleague, the Project for Awesome donation page and a page to donate to PIH directly. — 00:03:24 · doobly-doo, Project for Awesome, Partners In Health
  • ★★★ When John last spoke to Paul he asked what keeps him going; Paul said something like: getting to do hard work with friends. (hedged) — 00:03:24
  • ★★ John toasts doing hard work with friends and the light Paul Farmer's life showed all of us. — 00:03:24

In the description and comments

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Partners In Health · Paul Farmer

Also: Projects: Project for Awesome

Works: Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues

Organizations: Koidu Government Hospital · Maternal Center of Excellence · United States Agency for International Development · United States Congress · University Hospital of Mirebalais

Terms: doobly-doo

Concepts: antiretroviral therapy · child mortality · community health worker · health equity · HIV/AIDS · maternal death · tuberculosis

Places: Haiti · Rwanda · Sierra Leone

Only in the description or credits: Save the Children

Also centred on Paul Farmer: An H of G

← Previous: You Don't Want a Gas Stovetop · Next → How to Make Potatoes While Dread Presses In from Every Direction