Originally published by STAT, August 4, 2017. When the Democratic Republic of Congo detected cases of Ebola in May, local officials moved swiftly and global resources were rushed to help them. By the time the World Health Organization declared the outbreak over on July 2, only four people had died, four more had survived the […]
I have to be honest, working in global health and development can be depressing. Thinking of the magnitude of the global problems we face, combined with Western world shifts towards nationalism and populism, I can barely see a light at the end of the tunnel. When these moments of doubt hit, I remind myself that […]
“Eviscerate it!” Laurie Garrett was at her most pugnacious. She was speaking last week at the New York headquarters of the Rockefeller Foundation. Her subject was Planetary Health 2.0 and her target was the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), specifically its work on health. Yes, humans are of course sensitive to weather. Yes, existing […]
Paid sick days and paid family and medical leave have gained new momentum in the past several years as policymakers, businesses, and the public increasingly recognize the necessity of these policies for working families. In 2002, California became the first jurisdiction in the United States to pass paid family and medical leave. In 2007, San […]
There’s a broad consensus that the world is falling apart, with every headline reminding us that life is getting worse. Except that it isn’t. In fact, by some important metrics, 2016 was the best year in the history of humanity. And 2017 will probably be better still. How can this be? I’m as appalled as […]
Ridwan Kamil was one of the top architects in Indonesia, responsible for a tsunami memorial museum at home and projects across the Middle East and China. Last year, he gave it all up to run for mayor of his home town of Bandung, the third-largest city in Indonesia with a population of 2.6 million. He […]
How do you teach someone who has never eaten in a restaurant how to be a waiter? That might seem an odd question to pose when you are thinking about global public health and development, but it is a central question in Josh Ruxin’s fantastic new book, A Thousand Hills to Heaven: Love, Hope and […]
I’m a big believer in the power of partnership. By acting together, we can do far more to improve people’s lives than by acting alone. We saw this at the Global Vaccines Summit in Abu Dhabi, where partners from around the world collectively pledged more than $4 billion to end polio forever. It was a […]