Political Quotes

“I think what is great about the prize is it didn't set a short and limited goal. It goes for the whole thing: They want to prevent and cure blindness. I think we need more big thinking. We need to talk about let's cure diabetes, let's cure AIDS. Sometimes it takes an incremental approach. But sometimes it takes a big, grand or bold vision. The Senator mentioned Dr. Salk. In the early days, with the polio vaccine, some actually died from the vaccine. He had to move forward despite some obstacles and despite some setbacks. Originally, the whole idea of vaccination came from Dr. Boylston in Boston, preceding the time of our Revolutionary War. There, it was a live vaccine taken from the actual pustules of someone who had smallpox, lanced it, stuck it into the pustules, and then cut into a person who did not have smallpox and gave them the disease. He tried to give them a mild variant of this. For this, Dr. Boylston was hounded through the streets and mobs came to the house. The persons he chose to vaccinate first were his kids. That took a very bold step forward to vaccinate his kids. His kids survived, and the rest is history. George Washington had his family inoculated. Back at the time of the Revolutionary War, more people died from communicable diseases than died from actual bullets. This was true in most wars up until this century. I think it takes bold vision, and I think Sandy Greenberg will help to move this along with this prize. I love the idea of incentives.…”