What I’m discovering is that a large number of big names come to Spokane regularly to perform or to speak. And the paper likes to play up those visits. This time, the visitor was Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, who is dropping by to discuss one of his pet projects: The eradication of polio from the face of the Earth. There’s a little background here, some numbers — only 46 people had polio in 2016! — and a map showing the three nations on the planet where polio still exists. The chart at the bottom shows U.S. numbers — it was eradicated here in 1979.
MAY 10, 2019