Rockefeller and WHO

Question 1

world bodies of health care delivery

Answer 1

WHO
Private Philanthropic Organizations like Rockefeller Foundation or Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Government overseas aid programs (incl. Canadian International Development Aid, UK’s DFID, US’s PEPFAR)

Question 2

Rockefeller Foundation

Answer 2

• founded in 1913 during WWI by John D Rockefeller Sr (Standard Oil Company)
• Aim to promote the well-being of humanity around the world (biomedical focus, Western focus, single philanthropic donor)
• philanthropic provision of health care
• investment in the poor
• scientific - biomedical neutrality
• self-help rather than dependency
• focus on Mexico (respect and cooperation with federal government, repairing relationship with US, protection of international commerce ie oil)

Question 3

Rockefeller Foundation and Hookworm Campaign

Answer 3

• decided to focus on hookworm (problematic because nobody asked what the Mexicans wanted, hookworm wasn’t as huge a problem as it was made out to be)
• invades human host through skin, esp feet; sucks blood from intestines, causes listlessness, fatigue, disorientation, lowered immunity => lowered productivity
• chose to focus on hookworm because of fast results, demonstratble effects, limited costs
• rhetoric of eradication (building latrines, promotion of footwear; education)
• pills, microscope => convince people of efficacy and desirability of Western med/hygiene/public health
• 1910: Rockefeller Sanitation Commission for the Eradication of Hookworm Disease (40% of school children, around 7.5 mill Southerners harbour parasite)
• Mexican campagin was more political (Rockefeller Foundation oversaw admin and finances, Mexicans did groundwork)
• aimed to introduce biomedical, reinforce hegemony of western science, lasting “proper” health beuraucracy
• resulted in logic of erradication, exposed people to biomedicine, facilitated imperialism
• standardized treatment of oil of chenopodium (regardless of treatment => disasterous effects)

Question 4

Rockefeller –> WHO

Answer 4

• after WWII, industrialized states felt obligated to enhance the well-being of their citizens
• poverty seen as cause of disease
• developed welfare system
• world bodies created in recognition of the fact that disease are not contained by political borders. larger budget => more specific goal
• but they continued RF legacy –> fast results continue to take precedence, biomedicine remained central