You have heard of Osama bin Laden and his recent demise. Who hasn’t? In fact I have turned off the radio for the meantime as I am tired of the incessant analyses and reports and interviews of 9/11 relatives. Bin Laden is gone and good riddance but al Kaeda is still alive and will very likely kick back somewhere soon. But wait. Who is Barry Blumberg? Well, I should say who WAS Barry Blumberg as he died on April the 5th with very little fanfare. He discovered the hepatitus B virus and then developed a vaccine (with his team) and when it got little support from the pharmaceutical companies he gave out reagent kits and copies of his patent to any who wanted. Unlike bin Laden there is no estimate of how many lives his work SAVED but it was a considerable amount. Sadly bin Laden will go down in history but here’s my small contribution to Barry Blumberg and his ilk.
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Zimbabwe Absurdity 
Yay! A candle lighted in the darkness. Barry Blumberg, Jonas Salk,(polio) and Sir Frederick Banting (insulin). Inter alia. All who donated their work. When asked if he would patent the polio vaccine, Dr Salk is reputed to have said “Could you patent the sun?”
Yes, the insulin story is fascinating and worth a read on Wikipedia. Banting and partner got the Nobel for their work and shared it with 2 others who’d been on the team but they felt they’d been ignored unfairly.
Banting represented a better moment in Canadian life.