Tore Godal and the evolution of global health Visiting Professor & Writer-in-Residence, Conrad Keating, discusses how his latest book explores the pivotal moments in the evolution of global health and the remarkable journey of Tore Godal, ‘the quiet colossus of global health’ T The devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic marked an inflection point, a decisive moment in history, and made everyone aware of the concept and fragility of global health. In very broad terms, global health deals with the well-being of populations in a worldwide contest, focusing not simply on improving the quality of life in communities across the globe, but also in foregrounding issues of health equity, particularly in the global south. Perhaps without many beyond the immediate field itself realising, global health has in recent years become one of the pre-eminent areas not just of medical research but also of foreign policy, philanthropy, finance and international cooperation. By ending where the COVID-19 pandemic begins, my book examines the evolution of global health through the exploration of six ‘decisive moments’ in which assemblages of people from the World Health Organisation (WHO), philanthropic foundations, academia, bilateral agencies and other institutions came together to shape the world that we now inhabit. I’m interested in decisive moments as a form of analysis in history. As a historian, I’m convinced that like most things in life, and this is certainly true in global public health, periodically there are times when pivotal things happen and groups of people come together and make a durable contribution to understanding, treating, or preventing disease. This storytelling structure of describing key moments signposts the reader to the evidence-based medical interventions that have improved health, while at the same time exposing the often invisible architectures – human, political, and financial – that underpin the vast field of global health. One of the strengths of this book is that each of the thematic chapters show the importance of storytelling in medicine. In telling this story of the rich world of global health, I have used the life of one man, the Norwegian immunologist and leading global health activist, Tore Godal as a constant reference point, and as a way to give the book its narrative arc and chronological arrangement. Godal, described by The Lancet in 2019, as the ‘quiet colossus of global health’, is one of the most influential global health leaders of all time. His remarkable scientific career extends across six decades and offers a window onto decisive moments that have influenced the health and welfare of millions across the world, encompassing the World Bank’s decision that health should be calculated as an investment and not an expenditure; the great leap forward in Maternal and Child Health; the entry of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation into the global health arena via a $750 million start-up grant for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation; how insecticide-treated bed nets became the cornerstone of the WHO’s malaria control strategy; how the outbreak of Ebola in 2013 led to the creation of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations; and the first free donation of the drug Ivermectin by the pharmaceutical giant Merck for the treatment of river blindness. The discovery of Ivermectin has a particular resonance for Trinity, because the parasitologist, William ‘Bill’ Campbell studied here
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