White Folks Get Prozac

It seems counterintuitive that 1 out of 10  Americans use antidepressants, but our health insurance status determines whether we are eligible to get them. Scientists of the University of Michigan found doctors who are more likely to give better antidepressants, like Prozac, to white patients and those who have private insurance than to minorities and patients with Medicare or Medicaid. Hispanics and blacks, according to a study from Washington State University, with the same conditions as white patients, get less than half as many prescriptions as white patients.

The Marshmallow Test

It seems counterintuitive that Walter Michel, a professor at Stanford, made a study in the 1960’s called the Walter Michel’s Marshmallow Test, where a treat was given to kids from a nursery-school. The study consisted in giving the kids the choice of eating the treat right away or waiting]15 minutes and then getting another treat; according to Michel, students who waited were later shown to have more successful lives as adults.

The Marshmallow Test changed the concept of success for educators and psychologists. Now with the test, intelligence was not the only factor of success, but also self control and patience. Nevertheless, in a new study, Celeste Kidd said that “those kids would delay eating the marshmallow” because they trusted the adults. Therefore, Kidd ran the Marshmallow study again, but at the end of the fifteen minutes the kids did not get any prize. As a result, for the Kidd study, kids were less likely to wait because they did not trust the adults. Consequently, Kidd came to the conclusion that getting the kids better at waiting was a matter of giving them something worth waiting for.

Polio Vaccinators Assassinated 

It seems counterintuitive that five females from a polio vaccination team have been killed in the city of Pakistan, Karachi. As a result, the eradicate polio program has been suspended in the city.

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf called in the regional authorities to protect the polio vaccination teams. The anti-polio drive has assisted more than 5.2 million kids. Nevertheless, because the largest city, Karachi, is no longer in the drive, approximately 18 million other kids are not getting vaccinated in Pakistan. Part of the opposition to the drive has to do with the fake CIA hepatitis vaccination drive that was held in Pakistan in order to locate Osama Bin Laden in 2011. Following that deception, militants have kidnapped and killed foreign non-government organization workers who have tried to provide immunizations, but the anti-polio drives are being protected because they are necessary.

Around 200 children were paralyzed in Pakistan by polio in 2011. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that polio is expected to come back and attack; so far China, Africa, and Tajikistan had recorded their first cases in more than a decade. Pakistan is seeking to provide vaccination against polio to 33 million children with around 88,000 health workers delivering the drops. Dr. Bruce Aylward of the WHO hopes that “common ground is found” because the lives of children are in danger.