I once asked a tuberculosis doctor, KJ Seung: Of the 1,300,000 people who will die of TB this year, how many would survive if they had access to the kind of healthcare I have? After all, while TB is often curable now, it remains a very difficult disease to treat, especially in cases of extensive drug resistance. And people in wealthy countries do continue to die of TB, albeit rarely—in the U.S., around five hundred people will die of TB this year. In Japan, over a thousand. “How many would die if everyone could access good healthcare?” he asked me, as if he seemed confused by my question.
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