Going where the patients are

After a few months of training during Mao's Cultural Revolution, cadres of "barefoot doctors" spread out into the countryside to treat and prevent infectious and other illness that were endemic in poverty-stricken China. Within 10 years an estimated 1 million of these young medics were providing basic health care and teaching essential sanitation. The experiment officially ended in 1985 (three years after this photo) as more commercial medical models took over. Today, the inferior quality of health care in rural areas incentivizes many to move to larger cities.

During the Covid-19 epidemic, the Vermont Department of Health sponsored vaccination and testing clinics in under-served and remote communities, including here at a soccer gathering for dairy farm workers. Shots were free and healthcare professionals offered other basic medical advice and treatment. In a state with a population of 650,000, the free program gave out 500,000 to 1 million vaccinations. It ended on January 31, 2023.