Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4A— Monday, March 5, 2018
DAYTON HARE
Managing Editor
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890.
ALEXA ST. JOHN
Editor in Chief
ANU ROY-CHAUDHURY AND
ASHLEY ZHANG
Editorial Page Editors
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board.
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Samantha Goldstein
Elena Hubbell
Emily Huhman
Jeremy Kaplan
Sarah Khan
Lucas Maiman
Ellery Rosenzweig
Jason Rowland
Anu Roy-Chaudhury
Ali Safawi
Alex Satola
Kevin Sweitzer
Tara Jayaram
Ashley Zhang
Gun violence as a public health issue
The benefit of medical supply reallocation
O
n Feb. 14, 2018, a school
shooting
occurred
in
Parkland, Fla. at Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High School.
Seventeen people were murdered,
and the country was left to mourn
yet another senseless killing.
Since the 1999 shooting at
Columbine
high
school,
our
generation has recognized the
recurring
incidence
of
mass
shootings. Every time, the nation
is shocked and motivated to
change. But in reality, there has
been a distinct lack of change
on a policy level related to these
shootings.
The
control
the
National Rifle Association has
on politicians makes it hard to
utilize the government as an agent
of change. This control involves
millions of dollars in contributions
to numerous politicians in both
political parties, making it difficult
and unappealing to advocate for
policies the NRA may not support.
I believe after the Parkland
shooting, however, national reform
will finally begin to succeed.
The students who survived and
witnessed this act of violence have
opposed the stagnation and lack of
action over the past 19 years. Our
generation is breaking the status
quo by challenging politicians,
the NRA, corporations and the
American people for allowing
these systemic problems to exist.
As I have written in previous
columns, questioning your beliefs
and engaging in direct political
action spawns change. Yes, we
can say education as a whole is the
agent that could fix our nation’s
problems. This could include
teaching the reason for the current
state of things or how to make them
better for the future. I continued
to echo this mantra time after
time, but have begun to realize
education is only one small portion
of social change. When problems
have very complex solutions, it
is difficult to recognize the long-
term action that is required to
disrupt the status quo.
The solution for gun control
is nowhere close to simple. It may
require a shifting of public rhetoric,
bipartisan support, research and
education. And changing the
laws and actions in our country
will not happen overnight. But
the most effective way could be
to look at gun regulation from a
public health approach. Our nation
has watched political action fail
repeatedly. We have even watched
a digression in regulation and laws
in states across the nation.
Yet, public health approaches
have been used to regulate and
increase the safety of automobiles
and air pollution in the past.
For example, according to the
National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration, in 1946 there were
9.35 deaths per 100 million vehicle
miles traveled. As speed limits
were lowered, seatbelts were
required, and safety reporting was
heightened, this rate dropped to
1.18 in 2016.
Nicholas Kristof, a New York
Times columnist, also advocates
for this public health approach to
decrease the rate of shootings. He
argues the “liberal approach” to
regulate guns is “ineffective”. One
of the first steps in reducing gun
violence in the U.S. is research. Our
country faces a disproportionate
amount of gun violence and
gun-related fatalities compared
to other nations. According to a
study in the American Journal of
Medicine, Americans are 25 times
more likely to be killed by guns
than citizens of other high income
countries. Though this striking
data is important to take into
account, there is an overwhelming
lack of research conducted on
gun ownership, training and
violence. Funding needs to be
allocated to federal organizations
to complete this research to attain
a comprehensive conclusion about
the trends in this violence.
Furthermore,
increasing
background checks and limiting
the access that young people
have to guns is an important step
to increase the efficacy of gun
regulation. Current background
checks are only required for gun
sales at licensed dealers. As a
result, it is not difficult for guns to
change hands to other buyers after
this process, undermining the
goal of the surveillance. Kristof
says, “Our laws have often focused
more on weapons themselves
(such as the assault weapons
ban) rather than on access.”
Mass shootings are not the most
common type of gun violence, but
they are often the most publicized
because of their horrific display of
violence. Scrutinizing individuals
to strict background checks and
training would make the U.S.
more similar to the processes
that other countries require gun
owners to complete.
It is too easy to get firearms
in our country. A recent article
in the New York Times compares
how guns can be purchased in 15
countries. Australia, responding
to a 1996 mass shooting, requires
gun owners to be a part of a
shooting club, provide reasoning
for owning a gun, pass a thorough
background check and apply for a
permit for a specific type of gun.
The multiple steps that buyers
are required to undergo have
resulted in a drastic decrease of
gun violence.
The students who survived
the
Parkland
shooting
are
using their anger, grief and
frustration to create important
change. We cannot allow the
danger and violence that stems
from guns to persist. Kristof
writes, “Yet more Americans
have died from gun violence,
including suicides, since 1970
(about 1.4 million) than in all the
wars in American history going
back to the Revolutionary War
(about 1.3 million).” Regulating
guns to reduce the number of
deaths and violence will not
be easy, nor will it happen all
at once. From a public health
approach, it requires changing
the environment and focusing
on taking small steps that will
eventually lead to increased
safety and important change.
Julia Cohn can be reached at
julcohn@umich.edu
JULIA COHN | COLUMN
GEOFFREY GAMM | OP-ED
W
hile
many
of
us
spent Spring Break
sunbathing
on
warm beaches, visiting friends
and family or indulging in an
unhealthy dose of Netflix while
huddled under a mass of warm
blankets, hundreds of University
of Michigan students travelled to
the most impoverished regions of
the world to bring about positive
social change. These service-
oriented
students
witnessed,
for a week, what hundreds of
millions of people experience
throughout
their
lifetimes:
Ravaging
illnesses,
systemic
impoverishment and minimal
access to basic health care.
The
World
Health
Organization
cites
severe
shortages of sterilized needles
and gloves as one of the main
reasons for why 40 percent
of
medical
injections
in
impoverished
countries
are
classified
as
“unsafe.”
Ten
nations, with a combined 100
million people, have no access
to any kind of cancer treatment.
Even underfunded international
hospitals fortunate enough to
receive vaccine and medicine
donations
from
charities
oftentimes lack the basic gauze,
syringes and bandages needed to
administer the life-saving drugs.
Despite the United States
spending over $10,000 per person
on health care annually, many
countries spend fewer than $10
per person each year. What does
this mean? It means hundreds
of millions of people rely on
damaged, expired, unsterilized
and unsafe medical supplies.
It means millions of people
needlessly die of premature and
preventable deaths.
Conversely,
the
U.S.
has
a gluttony of excess medical
supplies that end up as waste.
The U.S. disposes of more than
4 billion — with a “B” — pounds
of medical supplies each year.
These discarded supplies end
up in landfills, contribute to
greenhouse
gas
emissions,
increase the cost of health care
and don’t go to people in need.
Though a majority of disposed
medical supplies are no longer
usable, 13 percent of all disposed
medical supplies are never used
in the first place and an estimated
50 percent of single-use supplies
could be safely reprocessed.
The University is not an
exception to this problem. Despite
an
ambitious
sustainability
initiative to reduce University-
produced waste by 40 percent
from 2006 to 2025, the University
is failing, and waste levels have
actually increased over the past 12
years. Michigan Medicine is one
of the main culprits and continues
to discard thousands of pounds
of medical supplies every day.
Worse yet, Michigan Medicine
has thrown out an estimated
$180 million of pristine, unused
medical supplies since 2006. In the
three minutes it takes you to read
this article, nearly $100 of unused
medical supplies were discarded
in our very own backyard.
So what can we, as students,
do to address this tremendous
global health disparity?
Blueprints For Pangaea is a
startup, nonprofit organization
founded by University students
to
reallocate
excess
medical
supplies from our local hospitals
to
impoverished
countries
overseas. Since 2015, Blueprints
For Pangaea shipped more than
30,000 pounds of medical supplies
— valued at $2.5 million — from
Michigan Medicine to hospitals in
Ghana, Niger and Myanmar.
By collaborating with hospital
administrators, doctors, nurses
and volunteers, Blueprints For
Pangaea
is
already
making
a major impact by reducing
domestic medical supply waste
mismanagement and by providing
more accessible health care to
countless people around the world.
Nearly 10 Blueprints For Pangaea
chapters have sprouted up across
the country and are exponentially
increasing the amount of medical
supplies
that
are
salvaged
and redistributed from their
respective universities (yes, even
Michigan State University and
Ohio State University).
Other University students on
campus have joined the cause.
Some are forging connections
and providing medical supplies
to doctors affiliated with medical
disaster-relief organizations like
the Syrian American Medical
Society. Undergraduate Research
Opportunity Program and pre-
medical students are supporting
“spring cleaning” drives in their
laboratories and clinics to collect
and donate unneeded medical
supplies. Planet Blue volunteers
are
increasing
awareness
of
waste and sustainability issues.
Still, other students are using
alternative spring break programs
as an opportunity to fill a carry-on
suitcase with life-saving medical
supplies as they travel to some of
the most impoverished areas of
the world.
In ways both big and small,
our fellow University classmates
are saving lives.
Now that Spring Break is over
and campus is alive with students
and future leaders, we are again
called to fulfill the University’s
mission
statement
to
“serve
the people of Michigan and the
world.” I urge you to consider
what you can do this spring to
combat medical supply waste
here in Ann Arbor and to help
save lives abroad. Do not consider
this spring’s Earth Day as an
event, but a target.
Between now and April 22,
join a student or professional
organization
dedicated
to
alleviating international health
disparities
and
unnecessary
medical supply waste. Encourage
your
laboratory
and
clinic
mentors to initiate a medical
supply
“spring
cleaning”
program if they do not already
have one. Join the Earth Day
2018 movement to “End Plastic
Pollution.” Do your part to help
the Earth and the people on it.
Geoffrey Gamm is a Senior in the
Ford School of Public Policy
A
s I type this, I am
currently sitting in a cafe
on the streets of Bogotá,
Colombia, about two blocks from
the U.S. Embassy, waiting for
an emergency passport so I can
return home. The following is
a true recounting of events that
transpired over my 2018 Spring
Break.
For my Spring Break, some
friends and I planned a 10-day
trip to Cartagena, Colombia. We
traveled in a fairly large group, 22
of us in total. I would like to think I
was among the most excited for the
adventures ahead, because I had
never been on an airplane before,
let alone traveled outside the
country. Had I known what would
befall, I imagine I would have felt
therwise.
After arriving Friday, we spent
the first evening buying groceries,
exchanging currencies and just
settling into the apartment complex
we rented. The next day we would
go to the beach and see how
sunburnt we could get. I have an
affinity for water and, as one should
expect, as soon as we arrived, I
threw my bag onto the pile with
everyone else’s and jumped in.
Now,
being
University
of
Michigan students who generally
act in rational manner and try to
think ahead, we left two or three
fellows “guarding” the bag pile at
all times. It also turns out that being
a large group of white Americans,
we were swarmed by vendors like
I’ve never seen before the entire
time we were at the beach. As the
vendors distracted us, someone
was able to sneak in and grab my
bag off the top of the pile.
When we were all sufficiently
burnt and the time came to pack
up and hail a taxi back to the
apartments, I noticed my bag
was not with the others. My first
thought was that someone was
either playing a prank on me or had
idly grabbed my bag, thinking it was
their own. Once I returned to the
rooms and interrogated everyone,
I decided the next step was to call
my bank and cancel my debit card
as a precautionary measure. It was
then that I discovered my card had
actually been attempted at an ATM
near the beach, and I realized I had
indeed been robbed.
The fact I had been robbed was
slightly less unsettling than the fact
that my bag not only contained my
(brand new, bought for this trip,
three-day-old) phone, my wallet
with all my money and all forms of
picture identification, but also my
passport — the only way to enter
back into the U.S. They had stolen
my ticket home.
As a foreigner in a country
where I could not speak a lick of
the language, it was quite difficult
to figure out where to even began
the process of getting home. After
several calls to the U.S. Embassy, I
discovered that I needed to travel to
Bogotá in order to get an emergency
passport. Easy, right? Fat chance.
Bogotá is over 1,000 kilometers
from Cartagena (or about 620
miles)
through
dangerous
countryside and hundreds of miles
of unpopulated national parks. My
best chance was to fly there, but
how does one fly with no form of
identification? Well, several more
calls to the embassy later, I now
know that I must go to the police to
file a report, get it signed and print a
picture of my passport.
That same evening, I went to
the “police station” with a friend
who spoke minimal Spanish. We
walked in and were greeted by a
lone officer sitting in a dimly lit
room, only slightly bigger than
my closet. His desk was bare save
a typewriter that was at least 70
years old and thoroughly surprised
me when it actually worked. The
officer proceeded to type up a
report and upon completion gave
us the paper and told us we had to
get to the other end of town to file
it. A 20-minute taxi ride later, we
discovered this next police station
was only open during regular
business hours and it was still
Saturday evening.
After foregoing most of the
weekend excursions to get my
paperwork in order and prepare
myself for a flight to Bogotá,
Monday rolled around and I was off
again with my Spanish-speaking
friend. Four hours of waiting in
line, a game of pass-and-play risk
and an hour-long meeting later, I
finally had my signed police report.
Thanks to the multitude of
help I received from my University
family, after a post to Facebook
looking
for
English-speaking
contacts in Bogotá, I was able to get
a trustworthy ride from the airport
to the embassy and had a ride
waiting for me afterwards.
As I sat in this restaurant,
continuing to wait for my ticket
home, I couldn’t help but think
how lucky I was to be an American
citizen, when so many people are
being ripped from their homes and
displaced by war, famine, fire or
deportation. I know my country,
friends and family are there for
me and were ready to help me get
home, when I was terrified I might
be stuck there for much longer than
anticipated.
I have always been fond of the
saying “you win or you learn, there
is no losing” and I have indeed
learned a great deal. I learned to
always lock your valuables up and
avoid traveling or going out with
them whenever possible. But most
importantly, I learned a newfound
appreciation for my friends, my
family and my country. I have
learned that I should take nothing
for granted.
My (not so) typical spring break
LUCAS DEAN | COLUMN
Lucas Dean can be reached at
lbdean@umich.edu.
But the most
effective way
could be to look at
gun control from
a public health
approach.
The US disposes
of more than 4
billion pounds of
medical supplies
each year.
I was terrified I
might be stuck
there for much
longer than
anticipated.
NATALIE BROWN | CONTACT CARTOONIST AT NGBROWN@UMICH.EDU