It is certainly true this year that one Rotary meeting is not the same as the next. Tonight President Stephen came down ill and Wayne had his doctor’s permission to not attend in person due to suffering from allergies. Anthony, Nora, John and Rudy appeared in person, and Bob and Wayne attended by zoom. Allan and Brendan are off enjoying holidays, and regrets were sent from Byron. Wayne served as meeting chair from his chair in his den and called the meeting to order at 7:18. We sang O Canada and it was said to be very nice.
Discussions included sharing information from the club barbecue and social at John’s place, Les looking a little better, Veronica renting in Victoria, no word yet from Nav regarding guest speakers, and the cost of hiring gardeners to keep up your yard work. We feel that Ribfest will be a huge financial success as thousands attended and we sold out many food and drink items. I know many people contributed donations as they came through the entrance, and we even received tips at the Rotary Cookhouse. We need to start recruiting speakers for our meetings, as the ideas and information they bring are always interesting and informative, and we’ve missed them for awhile. Speaking of speakers, Alice Kim will be joining us next week to give us an update on her studies, experiences and her plans to return to London. Quinn Zaniol and Clary Lee will be stopping by to receive their scholarship cheques as well.
Nora shared an environmental report with us. Four or five people were pulling weeds at the ABSL and six to eight intend to do so once a month. New planting is going in near the Korean memorial. A few plants burned in the heat, but overall things look good. Nora has the tongs and gloves for us to use when we do a road or park cleanup, part of our commitment to the Township and the City. We should replace Rotary signage which was stolen along the Nicomekl walkway.
Work is being done on the new entranceway to the arboretum where there will be a light controlling traffic. Rudy has decided to run for City council again and the election is on October 15th. Three slates of candidates are running in the Township. Nora has a copy of an environmental newsletter which she will share with members. RIP Jennifer Jones is supporting bee hotels to aid in bee pollination. Nora says we need to educate the public about all the varieties of bees and other pollinators.
Wayne gave a polio update, as the virus has been found in New York City and in London, England, and read Rotary’s response to these findings. The best defense is to be vaccinated against the polio virus.
Rotary statement on recent polio detections in U.S., Europe
The recent detection of the vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 case in New York, USA, and isolates in several environmental samples collected in London are stark reminders that as long as polio exists anywhere, it is a threat everywhere. It also highlights the importance of vaccination as the only form of protection against polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases and the work that needs to be done in our communities to encourage the uptake of vaccines. Also, as the world gets closer to zero wild poliovirus cases, it is increasingly important to track all forms of the virus wherever they may appear, including in polio-free regions.
The U.S. is still considered low risk for paralytic outbreaks of polio due to the high level of vaccine coverage across the population. If a child has received the entire course of vaccines, the risk of becoming paralyzed by polio is negligible. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 92.6% of children aged 24 months are fully vaccinated against polio, slightly below the 95% World Health Organization target.
The best things countries can do to protect themselves from polio until the disease is eradicated from the world are to: maintain high vaccination coverage and robust disease surveillance and be ready to respond in the event of an outbreak to minimize the risk and consequences of polio re-introduction or re-emergence anywhere.
The world currently has a unique opportunity to stop virus transmission for good. Still, all parties, including donors and country governments, must re-commit to polio eradication by fully supporting the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) 2022-2026 strategy. This focuses on adopting an emergency posture while generating greater accountability and ownership from country governments to eradicate wild polio and end variant poliovirus (cVDPV) outbreaks.
Rotary, a global service organization with over 1.4 million members, has been at the center of the worldwide effort to eradicate polio for over three decades. Every year, through our funding partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Rotary commits $150 million to the global effort to eradicate polio. We have contributed more than $2.6 billion and countless volunteer hours to end polio forever. Together with our partners, we engage communities everywhere to encourage high vaccination rates, immunizing over 400 million children annually. More than 20 million people are walking today who otherwise would have been paralyzed because of our efforts and those of our partners in the GPEI.
The time for urgent action is now. A new vaccine has been deployed – novel oral polio vaccine 2 (nOPV2) – which is more genetically stable to stop outbreaks of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus effectively. With sustained political and financial commitments, the GPEI is confident that we can achieve a world in which no child is paralyzed by polio again.
18 August 2022
Other updates
Happy and sad dollars were donated for: being pleased with the barbecue social at John’s place; thanking John and Elizabeth for a great time; attending a LEPS event and trying blackberry ketchup; losing a pair of binoculars, apparently stolen from the car; missing part of a cruise, all of Ribfest, and the club social due to COVID; and for the opportunity to socialize with more members at the barbecue.
We closed with a toast to Canada and wished each other a good evening. We will continue with hybrid meetings and encourage more members to attend in person again.
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