Unit 7 / Listening 4B

Tom: I've been thinking about ways to help Sophie spread the message about her work. If I write an article, Max will be only too happy to publish it, I'm sure, and some of those photos you took will definitely have an impact. But if we really want people to find out about the plight of her patients, there may be something more we can do.

Gina: I dare say there are lots of things we could do. But I tend to feel so helpless when faced with something like that. It's difficult to know where to start.

Tom: Well, I was thinking… Caroline and Simon are going to need topics for their documentaries. This could be a good one.

Gina: Excellent idea! Killing two birds with one stone.

Tom: Yes, so to speak!

Gina: But seriously, it's very good subject matter and a topic that really needs addressing. It would be good to raise people's awareness of the struggle faced by doctors and hospitals. The AIDS epidemic is well documented on a statistical level. But the human level needs highlighting.

Tom: Not to mention the political side. I know it may be a little simplistic to lay all the blame with the pharmaceutical companies, because after all, developing a new drug is incredibly costly, but even so, they're far more driven by concerns about profit than about human welfare.

Gina: Absolutely. The thing is that medicine is treated as if it was the same as any other commercial product, like shoes or computers or whatever. But that seems so unfair when it's human lives that are at risk.

Tom: Ideally, an international agency should be dealing with it. If the World Health Organisation had the necessary power and funding, a lot more could be achieved. It's a complex topic, I think – in fact it could make a complete documentary series. But it would be good to start off with the people who matter most, or at least who ought to matter most: the victims, the sufferers, in a place like the Kenyatta hospital.

Gina: When we get to the airport you can email both Caroline and Sophie and put them in touch with each other.

Tom: Yes, Sophie will be able to explain the local situation much better than me, that's for sure.

Gina: So that aside, what do you hope from our visit to the Fensters?

Tom: Well we can only hope they'll be willing to talk. It's imperative we prove the link between Beautiful Babes and the genetic experiments in Sophie's hospital.

Gina: I've been turning it over in my mind and I have a feeling those tests for genetic diseases that Sophie mentioned may turn out to be more significant than we think.

Tom: Really? How so?

Gina: It might explain why an apparently unassuming couple like the Fensters got involved with a bunch of unscrupulous scientists. Exactly how, I don't know, but what if they just wanted some sort of reassurance to begin with and then one thing led to another and they ended up parting with $50,000?

Tom: Hmm, maybe. What's certain is that there's something fishy in the way Gruninger and Freedman have been so hard to pin down. But we still have no real proof of anything. We're relying on guesswork.

Gina: I think we're getting close, though, Tom. I only hope that when we finally reach him, Ben will be safe and sound.