Page 4 - Healthcare News Mar/Apr 2022

Seizing the Moment
Physician Says Momentum May Be Building to Ban Nuclear Weapons
DBy GEORGE O’BRIEN
r. Ira Helfand notes that, since Russia became the second nation to produce nuclear weapons in the late 1940s, the
threat of a global nuclear conflict has always been real.
To most, though, it has never really seemed real, except for the duration of the Cold War, which of- ficially ended more than 30 years ago, and especially that two-week crack in time in 1962 that came to be known as the Cuban Missile Crisis, said Helfand, noting that for many, that event is only something to be read about, not something they lived through.
But the events in Ukraine are changing this nar- rative, and in a profound — and urgent — way, said Helfand, a retired emergency room physician at Mercy Medical Center and co-chair of the Physi- cians for Social Responsibility’s Nuclear Weapons Abolition Committee, a name that clearly speaks to its mission.
He told HCN that recent events — not just those in Ukraine but also those in North Korea, as well — have made the threat of nuclear war as real as ever. And while this is certainly a scary time because of these threats, it might also be considered a time of opportunity when it comes to the Nuclear Weapons Abolition Committee and its stated mission.
“If there is to be any good that comes out of this terrible disaster in Ukraine, perhaps it will be an understanding of the need around the world to eliminate nuclear weapons,” he said. “Which will lead to effective political action to achieve that.”
In recent months, Helfand, who has, over the years, spoken to groups ranging from local Rotary clubs to special sessions of the United Nations Gen- eral Assembly on the subject of preventing nuclear war, has been ramping up such efforts — through speaking engagements, op-ed pieces, and interviews with media out like this one — and using current events to bring more attention to a 75-year-old issue.
The initiative is called the ‘Back from the Brink Campaign,’ which is based on the nuclear-freeze campaign of the 1980s, which brought about an end to the Cold War arms race, he said. Except this time, the goal is to get rid of the weapons altogether.
Those behind the effort are “organizing around
a simple platform, a simple statement of what U.S. nuclear policy ought to be — a key part of which is a call for the United States to begin now to negotiate with the other eight nuclear-armed countries for a verifiable, enforceable, mutual timetable to eliminate nuclear weapons,” he said. “This is not unilateral disarmament, it’s a call for the United States to lead the negotiations to achieve universal disarmament.”
Organizers have brought resolutions embodying this platform to cities and towns, civic organizations, and faith organizations across the country, he went on, adding that more than 60 municipalities, includ- ing Springfield, Worcester, Boston, and others in Massachusetts have signed the statement, as well as several state legislatures.
The goal is to gain a national consensus on the matter, said Helfand, adding that he senses momen-
“
tum in the ongoing efforts to ban nuclear weapons and the potential for much more.
“The current war in Ukraine is putting this issue before people again in a way that will lead to a good outcome,” he noted. “This issue is back where it ought to have been all this time — on the table and on the public agenda. We’ve been trying to use this occasion to educate people about the danger.”
For this issue, HCN talked at length with Helfand about Back from the Brink and ongoing efforts to prevent a nuclear war by banning such weapons.
He expressed the hope that current events may just provide inspiration to bring change on a truly global scale.
If the United States and Russia go to war today, it’s not going to be one relatively small bomb used on one or two cities, as was the case
in 1945; it’s going to be many bombs used against many cities, and these bombs will be 10 to 50 times more powerful than the one that destroyed Hiroshima.”
Understanding the Consequences
Helfand, who has published studies on the medi- cal consequences of nuclear war in the New England Journal of Medicine, the British Medical Journal, the World Medical Journal, and other publications, said one challenge to banning nuclear weapons is a lack of clear understanding among many people about just what a nuclear conflict would be like.
Indeed, he told HCN that many still think in terms of 1945 and the weapons used then when they contemplate nuclear war.
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