Civil and political rights are critical, but not often the real problem for the destitute sick. My patients in Haiti can now vote but they cant get medical care or clean water. – Paul Farmer
It is clear that the pharmaceutical industry is not, by any stretch of the imagination, doing enough to ensure that the poor have access to adequate medical care. – Paul Farmer
Haiti is always talking about decentralization and nothing has been so obvious, perhaps a weakness, as the centralized nature of Haitian society as being revealed by the earthquake. I mean, they lost all these medical training programs because they didnt have them anywhere else. – Paul Farmer
You cant have public health without a public health system. We just dont want to be part of a mindless competition for resources. We want to build back capacity in the system. – Paul Farmer
On bad days, I think Id like to be a plastic surgeon who goes to Third World countries and operates on children in villages with airlifts, and then I think, Yeah, right, Im going to go back to undergraduate school and take all the biology I missed and then go to medical school. No. No. – Tama Janowitz