Thanks for the comment, I’d like to know that as well!
Since writing the article and diving further into the antivenom crisis, I think I’ve actually doubled down on cost of treatment being the primary issue.
When faced with the following options:
1. long trip to clinic, expensive treatment that may not work. 2. short trip to local healer, inexpensive treatment that may not work
I can understand why someone would opt for the latter.
My model would be that people would become much more willing to go to the hospital for , when they see acqaintance after acqaintance come back healthy, happy, and with their wallets intact as opposed to in coffins with a bill attached.
One way to test this, could be to look how people’s willingness to go to the hospital changes when cheap and working antivenom is introduced in an area. Another way could be to look at how prevalence of inefficacious (or outright fraudulent) antivenom affects willingness to go to the hospital, though I suspect there isn’t sufficient data to do this analysis.
That said I feel very uncertain about my prediction, and I don’t think I’d be willing to make a bet with particularly good odds. Frankly I don’t know anything about indiginous communities or their circumstances, and I’d trust your judgement more than mine. The fact that WHO’s 2030 plan spends such a large proportion of its resources on community engagement suggests it’s a bigger deal than I made it to be.
Thanks for the comment, I’d like to know that as well!
Since writing the article and diving further into the antivenom crisis, I think I’ve actually doubled down on cost of treatment being the primary issue.
When faced with the following options:
1. long trip to clinic, expensive treatment that may not work.
2. short trip to local healer, inexpensive treatment that may not work
I can understand why someone would opt for the latter.
My model would be that people would become much more willing to go to the hospital for , when they see acqaintance after acqaintance come back healthy, happy, and with their wallets intact as opposed to in coffins with a bill attached.
One way to test this, could be to look how people’s willingness to go to the hospital changes when cheap and working antivenom is introduced in an area. Another way could be to look at how prevalence of inefficacious (or outright fraudulent) antivenom affects willingness to go to the hospital, though I suspect there isn’t sufficient data to do this analysis.
That said I feel very uncertain about my prediction, and I don’t think I’d be willing to make a bet with particularly good odds. Frankly I don’t know anything about indiginous communities or their circumstances, and I’d trust your judgement more than mine. The fact that WHO’s 2030 plan spends such a large proportion of its resources on community engagement suggests it’s a bigger deal than I made it to be.