CNN Posts Our Wake-Up Call

About Ukraine & the current planet-wide near-death experience

Just a brief post to share an article I co-authored, published yesterday by CNN. (Yes, that CNN, they also have a website.)

The article: “The only way to guarantee nuclear weapons are never used.”

The headline implies a question. One answer comes in a 2017 quote from Joe Biden himself: “If we want a world without nuclear weapons, the United States must take the initiative to lead us there.”

I started to say, “I hope you enjoy the article!” — but it ain’t very enjoyable. Maybe I’ll say, I hope you find it thought-provoking enough to copy-paste and forward to your Congressperson.

My co-authors are two giants of public health.

Dr. Ira Helfand, a full-time practicing physician until his recent retirement, has also cultivated a second brilliant career as an expert on the tragic humanitarian and medical consequences of any nuclear weapons use.

In the 1980s, Ira was among Boston physicians — including pediatrician Helen Caldicott, cardiologist James Muller and others — who re-launched the organization Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), which 40 years later is still a leading voice for global nuclear disarmament. Back then, PSR reached out to Soviet Union physicians — which led to what today is a worldwide umbrella group, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). The American and international groups shared the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize for their work. (I review some of the history in this article for Emergency Medicine News.)

Several years ago, Ira cajoled me into joining and then taking over the founding Boston chapter of PSR — the national PSR offices moved to Washington D.C. some time ago — and I and others breathed new life into a local nuclear abolition movement that had gotten pretty sleepy. Around the same time, and on a much grander scale, IPPNW was reviving the global movement by launching what became ICAN, the International Coalition Against Nuclear Weapons — an organization that won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its work shepherding a treaty to ban nuclear weapons through the United Nations.

Then COVID-19 rolled in. I had to focus on my day jobs as a full-time ER doctor and a medical director for 911 / EMS services, so I handed the baton off to friend and colleague Dr. Brita Lundberg, the current Boston PSR chair. I’m still on the board of directors of both Boston and national PSR.

If you would like to do something to help us in our work for global nuclear abolition and against runaway climate change, you could join or donate to Boston PSR and / or national PSR.

My other excellent co-author for this CNN article is Dr. Barry Levy, a physician and professor of public health at Tufts medical school. Barry is a past president of the American Public Health Association, a major national force for medical good that’s been around for 150 years. He’s also a prolific author, and next month has a new book coming out, “From Horror to Hope,” about the health impacts of war.

p.s. — To give you an idea how important this work can be: Here’s a Boston Globe article about PSR and IPPNW colleague Jim Muller, a Brigham & Women’s Hospital cardiologist, addressing the prestigious Russian Academy of Sciences on Wednesday, to tell them how the war in Ukraine was wrecking opportunities for American-Russian collaboration on important medical projects and risking worldwide nuclear annihilation. He urged all to work for peace — and got a good response from his audience of Russian scientists and physicians.

And here’s a brief but forceful statement signed by Nobel Peace Prize laureates and organized by IPPNW, calling for a Ukraine ceasefire.