From Hiroshima to Today: Medicine’s Unfinished Mission

From Hiroshima to Today:
Medicine’s Unfinished Mission

Eighty years ago this month, the world witnessed the horror of nuclear weapons when the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to bring an end to the Second World War.

Over 400,000 people — mostly ordinary civilians going about their daily lives — were killed or injured. Entire city blocks simply vanished in seconds. The survivors spent their remaining years battling radiation-related cancers, burns that never fully healed, and memories that haunted their waking lives and their dreams.

Yet today, world leaders make threats about nuclear weapons as if they're just another tool of coercion. This week, tensions escalated when President Trump repositioned nuclear submarines after former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made “highly provocative” statements, including reminding the US that Moscow has nuclear strike capabilities. Vladimir Putin responded that "everyone should be very, very careful with nuclear rhetoric."

Right now, nine countries control roughly 12,000 nuclear weapons — enough firepower to end civilization several times over. These weapons are deployed near conflict zones involving Ukraine, the Middle East, and in India and Pakistan, where simmering tensions recently flared up. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has moved its symbolic doomsday clock from 90 seconds to 89 seconds — one second closer than ever before to total apocalypse.

So why aren't health professionals speaking up?

Medicine has always been about preventing harm before it happens. We don't just treat lung cancer — we campaign against smoking. We don't just treat car accident victims — we advocate for seatbelt laws. We don’t accept gun violence — we lobby hard for gun laws. Nuclear war is the ultimate preventable catastrophe.

Even a so-called "limited" nuclear exchange would trigger global famine, affecting billions worldwide. Hospitals would be overwhelmed by radiation victims or simply destroyed.

The medical community has fought this fight before — with some success.

After WWII, doctors, including Albert Schweitzer, warned against more nuclear testing. Concerned about the threat of nuclear war, American doctor Bernard Lown and Soviet doctor Yevgeniy Chazov started the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. They helped craft the 1987 treaty that eliminated a whole class of nuclear weapons.

Certainly, health providers face many important battles, such as defending Medicaid funding, emphasizing the importance of vaccinations, working globally on malaria, AIDS, and hunger, and tackling climate change. Nuclear war could render all these other health issues insignificant overnight.

The medical community holds a special moral authority that goes beyond politics. When we address threats to human health, people tend to listen, regardless of their political affiliations.

Back in 2017, the UN took a significant step by adopting a treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, making it the first binding agreement to ban nuclear arms. However, many countries, including the US, haven't yet ratified the treaty.

The question isn't whether health professionals have a responsibility to speak out in favor of the treaty. The question is: What are we waiting for?

– Dr. Michael Wilkes with a Second Opinion