Take as Directed

Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme, spent several weeks in the hot zone in eastern Congo, mobilizing the international response to the late-discovered Ebola outbreak. Establishing community trust and confidence is the single most urgent challenge across all activities. At the six-week point, the response is scaling. However, "We have to be humble." "We are n...

In this episode of the CommonHealth Live! series, J. Stephen Morrison sits down with Representative Ami Bera (CA-06) to discuss the future of U.S. global health security strategy in an era of redefined alliances, geopolitical competition, and the rise of transformative but disruptive technologies such as AI.  What is the future of global health assistance under the new structure created by the U.S...

Dr. Gerald Parker, an acclaimed biodefense/One Health expert and high-ranking official across several administrations, experienced New World screwworm (NWS) as a boy in Texas while assisting his veterinarian father treat pets invaded by the parasite. Michaela Simoneau, CSIS Fellow, joined the conversation. In the late 1950s, the scaled introduction of sterile male flies — 50 million per week — was...

Jamie Bay Nishi, the dynamic CEO of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), is absorbed with the question: how do we navigate all the changes in government policy and programs and hold the global health community together? That includes philanthropies, universities, and companies. OMB’s proposed “Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance,” a 400-page document, would expand...

Declan Walsh, the acclaimed New York Times Africa correspondent, visited the hot zone of the Ebola outbreak in Ituri Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from May 22 to June 12, the "perfect petri dish." How to explain the "enormous lag" in acknowledging the outbreak and responding to it? "It all boils down to two factors, conflict and gold."  Will the outbreak grow exponentially...

Dr. Salim Abdool Karim, the renowned South African epidemiologist, chairs the Africa CDC Emergency Consultative Group. In that role, he just completed a visit to Bunia, capital of Ituri province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, site of the dangerous Ebola outbreak. His focus included laboratories, test centers, isolation units, along with PPE, safe, dignified burials, contact tracing, the WHO/...

Two years since the launch of the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA), a financial mechanism that invests in commercially viable manufacturing efforts on the continent, what progress has been made in the effort to produce 800 million vaccines in Africa by 2035? Where are there opportunities for strengthening access to routine immunizations for vulnerable populations, including the 6.7...

Dr. Jeffrey Gold, President of the University of Nebraska, details the evolving experience of caring for the 16 Americans evacuated from the Dutch ship, the HV Hondius, following an outbreak on the ship of the Andes strain of the hantavirus. The American passengers were successfully settled May 11 at both the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s National Quarantine Unit (the sole such entity in...

Professor Rebecca Katz, Georgetown University, explains the Health Security Operations Center, the remarkable initiative she has spearheaded with others to enhance protection against dangerous outbreaks during the FIFA World Cup June 11-July 19 in the US, Mexico and Canada. She speaks to its genesis, mission, and coalition partners. Give it a listen! 

On May 20, Professor Paul Spiegel presents in Geneva the report of the Lancet Commission on health, conflict and forced displacement, conducted in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health (CHH.) The U.S. rollout will take place June 2 at the JHU Washington Center, 555 PA Ave NW. Paul speaks in this podcast to the genesis and mandate of the Commission, and the innovative an...

Priya Basu, head of the Pandemic Fund (est. 2022, based at the World Bank), reflects on the Fund's origin and evolution. "It exists to solve problems no one else was solving." Its $1.4 B invested over three years in pandemic preparedness and response has attracted seven times that much from partner governments and multilateral development banks. Finances remain fragile and voluntary. The hope is t...

Gavi CEO Sania Nishtar sat down with Katherine E. Bliss, Director and Senior Fellow, Immunizations and Health Systems Resilience, to discuss the Alliance’s ambitious plan of work for the next five years; the ways in which Gavi is reforming to improve efficiencies, promote country ownership and self-sufficiency, overcome resource constraints and meet the geopolitical challenges of the current momen...

In September 2025, the U.S. Department of State, Gilead Sciences, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced a novel partnership to procure and deliver lenacapavir—a groundbreaking twice-yearly injectable pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention—to up to two million people over next three years.  On Tuesday, April 14, the leadership of these three entities conv...

Dr. Eli Cahan explains how he evolved into both a neonatologist and an accomplished, intrepid journalist, inspired by the likes of Atul Gawande and shaped by experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is a balancing act, rushing between fixed medical facilities and airplanes. “We get to bear witness.”  His stories have covered anti-microbial resistance (AMR) among war fighters. An upcoming piece...

Dr. Benjamin Park is Director of the CDC Division of Global Health Protection that protects Americans against dangerous outbreaks by strengthening partner countries’ capabilities to detect and respond. A personal and early professional epiphany was Benjamin’s role in leading the investigation in 2012 of a fungal meningitis outbreak that struck across America, killing dozens and gravely sickening a...

During this year’s Vaccination Week in the Americas, which runs from April 25 to May 2, countries across the hemisphere will celebrate the lives saved through immunization programs, carry out special campaigns to increase immunization coverage among vulnerable populations, and conduct educational activities to encourage vaccine uptake, combat misinformation and sustain political will for preventin...

Dan Diamond, Washington Post reporter on the White House and health care, shares his reflections on President Trump’s swirling passions to reshape Washington’s built environment, with intense controversy surrounding the ballroom. What’s driving this, and where is it headed? On health, Dan reflects on where the Trump administration is heading, 16 months into its second term. Chris Klomp, the new CO...

Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times, offers her reflections on HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s tenure over the past fifteen months. His vaccine agenda has always been an “outlier”—“an unpopular agenda”—yet it remains at the core of his identity. He has now “hit a wall.” Casey Means’ nomination to be U.S. Surgeon General is stalled; the recruitment of a CDC Director is stalled; Judge Murphy ha...

Since January 2025, the United States has confirmed more than 3,000 cases of measles across multiple states - with South Carolina reporting nearly 1000 cases in just the first two months of 2026. The economic costs of these outbreaks pose a burden to local and state health agencies through hospitalizations, surveillance, and contact tracing, among other measures. Cases of pertussis are similarly h...

Gilead Sciences, the Trump administration, and the Global Fund have joined in partnership to bring lenacapavir, the new twice-yearly injectable prevention tool against HIV/AIDS, to two million persons at-risk in ten African countries in three years. Emily Gibbons, Gilead Sciences, explains the back story—the determined work of the previous two and a half years to plan an effective launch that woul...

This episode of The CommonHealth features a discussion of the recently published book, Deployed: A Physician on the Front Lines of Global Health, by Kevin M. De Cock.  In Deployed, De Cock details an insider’s perspective confronting infectious disease crises from the AIDS pandemic to Ebola to Covid-19. He explores the intersections between medicine, global public health, and epidemiology througho...

Andi L. Fristedt, former senior official at CDC, FDA and the Senate HELP Committee, heads up a newly established Washington, D.C. office of the Parkinson’s Foundation. The Foundation acts in close allegiance with Michael J. Fox and his foundation; advocates; scientific and policy leaders such as Professors Okun and Dorsey; and new voices such as Harvard Professor Sue Goldie. It supports research o...

Keith Poulsen, professor at the University of Wisconsin and director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, provides an update on the status of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1), as pertains to dairy cattle, poultry, wildlife—and humans. Are we making progress in biosecurity in the dairy industry? Dairy may be decades behind, but keep in mind: “Cows are like walking tanks.” Keep...

Over the past year, outbreaks of measles, a highly transmissible virus, have affected thousands of unvaccinated people across Canada, Mexico and the United States. With more than 5,000 cases and sustained transmission during 2025, Canada lost its measles elimination status in October. And the United States and Mexico could lose elimination certification later this year. To what extent are current...

Jane Halton, chair of CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, walks us through CEPI's evolution since its founding in early 2017, and the launch on February 14, at the Munich Security Conference, of CEPI 3.0, fitted to the current era of heightened threat of dangerous bioevents, scarcer resources, and a pivot to security partners, including NATO.