There have been seven directors-general of the World Health Organization since my first WHO job in India 50 years ago. They were dedicated physicians, scientists, and global diplomats. I have known them all.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had been DG for less than a year when he went to Thailand for an award ceremony recognizing leaders in medicine and public health. A group of dignitaries was onstage when a group of raucous singers and dancers swept up onto the stage and invited everyone to join them in a conga line. It is hard for me to imagine any of the previous DGs dancing in that conga line. But Tedros joined enthusiastically, and that is how I met this sui generis man who has transformed the global health landscape with visionary leadership and relentless support for science-based decisionmaking.
He has many firsts: the first DG from Africa, the first nonphysician, the first to face a global pandemic that killed millions, and now, the first to face the possibility of an irrational American withdrawal from the organization, which the U.S. helped found in 1948 and which has worked to keep Americans safer and healthier every year since then.
Tedros has been a gift to global health. He has carried the awesome responsibility of a global agency responsible for the health of people in over 194 countries—with an annual budget that works out to about 85¢ per person—with courage and wisdom. His leadership is principled. It is authentic. It is outcome-oriented. And he has made the world healthier than ever.
Brilliant is an epidemiologist who helped eradicate smallpox