The following is the text of the speech Club 24 Member Devin Thorpe presented at the All Clubs luncheon held in association with the Zone Institute.
Rotarians are fond of saying that we’ve reduced polio by 99 percent.
In 1988, there were about 350,000 cases of polio. If we had reduced polio by only 90 percent, how many cases would there be?
If we had reduced polio by 99 percent, how many cases would there be?
If we had reduced polio by 99.9 percent, how many cases would there be?
If we had reduced polio by 99.99 percent, how many cases would there be?
Well, so far in 2016 there have been only 27 cases and there may not be another one ever. We’ve reduced polio by more than 99.99 percent!
We’re not finished, but there’s no doubt we will.
You did that! Give yourselves a round of applause.
Rotary has been working on the eradication of polio for 30 years. It has been exponentially more difficult than anticipated.
Since the mid-1980s, over $10 billion has been spent on polio eradication. In contrast, Rotary’s first estimate of cost was $25 million. In other words, we’ve spent 400 times more than we thought it would take. And we’ll spend billions more before we’re done.
My recent visit to Pakistan gave me an interesting perspective on the scale of the effort. By show of hands, how many of you think there are at least 1,000 people paid to work exclusively or primarily on polio eradication in Pakistan? Keep your hands up if you think there are 10,000.
In fact, there are nearly a quarter of a million people employed in polio eradication in Pakistan. It’s a big country, but it has only about 2.5 percent of the world’s population. There are millions of people similarly employed around the world. I believe this is the largest public health initiative in human history.
The significance of polio eradication goes far beyond the ten million plus people who have already been spared polio. Polio’s legacy is a model for solving the world’s biggest problems.
Following on the heels of Rotary, the Carter Center is similarly close to eradicating Guinea worm. Several other diseases could be eradicated within a decade.
AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria remain public health problems on a greater scale than polio was 30 years ago, but I am convinced—after talking with experts in the fields—that these can be eliminated within 30 years using the polio model.
The polio lessons go far beyond public health and communicable disease. We can apply what we’ve learned to eradicate extreme poverty. We used to think of poverty as a necessary or at least permanent part of the human condition. Today, the world’s great minds not only agree that we can eradicate extreme poverty, but have set a goal to do so by 2030.
Perhaps the greatest challenge of our day is to create a more environmentally sustainable planet, where the human population can continue to grow at a healthy rate and future generations can enjoy seeing an elephant in the wild. The polio lessons teach us how to scale up massive efforts to solve global problems.
Remember, we don’t have to solve today’s problems with yesterday’s tools. Just as bivalent vaccines and mobile reporting technology were invented to accelerate polio eradication, we will solve today’s problems using tomorrow’s technologies combined with Rotary-style optimism, perseverance and collaboration.
It is our sacred responsibility as Rotarians to put the final nails in polio’s coffin.
Let me caution, however, that you and I as individuals cannot sit back and rely on Rotary International to solve the world’s big problems. We share this responsibility personally and individually.
I want you all to repeat the following mantra with me four times. Each time, we’ll emphasize a different word. The mantra is “I will change the world.”
Say it with me, emphasizing the word “I.”
Now, give yourselves a final round of applause!
