Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs

by Mark Olshaker

We must never forget that a dangerous microbe anywhere in the world today could be everywhere in the world tomorrow.

Because, in fact, infectious disease is the deadliest enemy faced by all of humankind.

My hero and friend William “Bill” Foege, former director of the CDC, former executive director of the Carter Center, and now a senior fellow and consultant to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, says, “The purpose of public health is to promote social justice,” going on to explain, “Its philosophical base is social justice, and its scientific base is epidemiology.”

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the US government together account for 23 percent of the WHO’s budget, so that gives some idea of how influential the Gates Foundation is on the international public health stage.