Vikram Patel Quotes

But if you're asking my opinion, I would argue that a social justice approach should be central to medicine and utilized to be central to public health. This could be very simple: the well should take care of the sick.

In Jamaica, we eradicated polio many years ago, but there are a lot of kids suffering in Africa still.

People talk about the redistribution of wealth a lot, which is a very valid topic. But what about the redistribution of health? That's even more concentrated at the top.

But I contend that if we're providing total medical coverage for every man, woman, and child in Iraq, shouldn't we at least be doing the same thing for every man, woman, and child in the United States?

The essence of global health equity is the idea that something so precious as health might be viewed as a right.

America's most dangerous diseases have developed an immunity to politics. We suffer not from a failure of political organization or power, but a failure of love.

I want us to be judged by the impact we have on the health of the people of Africa and the health of women. Improvements in the health of the people of Africa and the health of women are key indicators of the performance of WHO. This is a health organization for the whole world... But we must focus our attention on the people in greatest need.

The public health of five million children should not be left to luck or chance.

I'm sure that the standard of public morality we've helped build will force government in Canada to approve complete health insurance.

We create our own government. We are responsible for its beauty and for its ugliness. We are responsible for its glories and for its failures and, most important, we are responsible for amending those failures no matter who are their most immediate architects.

So much of what we are currently seeing as far as human suffering and misery comes from diseases that should have been preventable but were not.

Health care is a fundamental right of all citizens, not simply a commodity available to the highest bidder.

We as citizens should hold our government accountable for word and deed.

Whenever you have large numbers of people who are dying for preventable reasons, that constitutes a public health issue.

Yes, health care is an election issue. It's also a moral imperative especially in a wealthy nation.

Health is a human right, not a privilege to be purchased.

Congress’ duty to the voters requires it to monitor how military appropriations are spent and to investigate the army’s failures if it was not willing to investigate itself. What are we to do? Sit idle during all the period that the [Civil] war is in progress?

[Public Health] means the saving and lengthening of lives of thousands of citizens, the extension of the vigorous working period well into old age, and the prevention of inefficiency, misery, and suffering. These advances can be made by organized social effort. Public health is purchasable.

Quality health care services must be accessible and affordable for all - not just those in certain ZIP codes or tax brackets.

We are driven by the belief that every person in this world matters and access to better health is a right, not a privilege.

That's what representative democracy is about, is members going to Washington but coming home and answering the tough questions.

Your health shouldn't rely on pleas for kindness from strangers. We can and will do better.

Stopping TB requires a government program that functions every day of the year, and that's hard in certain parts of the world. And partly it's because of who tuberculosis affects: It tends to affect the poor and disenfranchised most.

We can no longer remain within our exam rooms and ignore what happens in our communities. As physicians and dentists, we must have a presence in both places. Our sacred responsibility is both to help the patient in front of us and also to safeguard the health of the nation.

Public servants should always be accountable and responsible for what they are advocating, and I challenge the American people to demand this from their representatives.