Podcast appearances and mentions of Thomas J Bollyky

Tom Bollyky joined us on the occasion of our 100th episode to reflect on President Biden's six-point re-set of US pandemic policy, unveiled September 9, and to discuss what can be done to break the deadlock over determining the origin of SARS-CoV-2. President Biden's patience has clearly run out, and the new approach, heavily reliant on mandates, will stir political blowback, litigation, and defiant disobedience which may slow progress versus accelerate momentum. It's “not a happy day” when people will be “pushed into a corner.” It's disappointing that the private sector did not earlier do far more. Our national narrative may however improve, as higher rates of hospitalization of children deflate the individual freedom argument. On the origins controversy, it is “utterly unsurprising” that the US intelligence review was inconclusive. The origin issue is indeed terribly important, at this historic “policy moment,” since without resolution, we are blocked in our prevention approaches. We are in a “dark environment” and there is no prospect for progress in global health unless we find a basis for cooperation between the US and China. In the meantime, we should prioritize moving ahead with more rigorous lab safety standards and end wildlife trade and wet markets. Thomas J. Bollyky is the Director of the Global Health Program and Senior Fellow for Global Health, Economics, and Development at the Council on Foreign Relations.

As COVID-19 sweeps the world, some health experts say wealthy countries like the U.S. should do more to help countries like India that are facing deadly surges.Guests:  Achal Prabhala is a health activist and coordinator for the AccessIBSA project that campaigns for access to medicines in India, Brazil and South Africa at the Shuttleworth Foundation. Thomas J. Bollyky is director of the global health program and a senior fellow for global health, economics, and development at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Thomas J. Bollyky, director of CFR’s Global Health program and senior fellow for global health, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the World Health Organization’s newly declared pandemic, COVID-19.

Thomas J. Bollyky, director of CFR’s Global Health Program and senior fellow for global health, economics, and development, and Yanzhong Huang, CFR senior fellow for global health, sit down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the recent spread of a pneumonia-like coronavirus from the city of Wuhan, China.

Thomas J. Bollyky discusses global health and its role in development.

Council on Foreign Relations' Thomas J. Bollyky  Plagues and the Paradox of Progress: Why the World Is Getting Healthier in Worrisome Ways Plagues and parasites have played a central role in world affairs, shaping the evolution of the modern state, the growth of cities, and the disparate fortunes of national economies. This book tells that story, but it is not about the resurgence of pestilence. It is the story of its decline. For the first time in recorded history, virus, bacteria, and other infectious diseases are not the leading cause of death or disability in any region of the world. People are living longer, and fewer mothers are giving birth to many children in the hopes that some might survive. And yet, the news is not all good. Recent reductions in infectious disease have not been accompanied by the same improvements in income, job opportunities, and governance that occurred with these changes in wealthier countries decades ago. There have also been unintended consequences. In this book, Thomas Bollyky explores the paradox in our fight against infectious disease: the world is getting healthier in ways that should make us worry. Bollyky interweaves a grand historical narrative about the rise and fall of plagues in human societies with contemporary case studies of the consequences. Bollyky visits Dhaka—one of the most densely populated places on the planet—to show how low-cost health tools helped enable the phenomenon of poor world megacities. He visits China and Kenya to illustrate how dramatic declines in plagues have affected national economies. Bollyky traces the role of infectious disease in the migrations from Ireland before the potato famine and to Europe from Africa and elsewhere today. Historic health achievements are remaking a world that is both worrisome and full of opportunities. Whether the peril or promise of that progress prevails, Bollyky explains, depends on what we do next. Read more from Bollyky here: Foreign Affairs: Health Without Wealth - The Worrying Paradox of Modern Medical Miracles  Financial Times

Thomas J. Bollyky discusses the domestic and international responses to COVID-19.