Disease Knows No Politics

Disease Knows No Politics is a timely, inspirational medical and political memoir that champions the American Dream and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), while recounting the extraordinary immigrant journey of Dr. Elias Zerhouni, former NIH director under President George W. Bush, presidential envoy under President Barack Obama, and treating physician for President Ronald Reagan. Dr. Zerhouni, who was asked to consider being director of President Donald Trump's Operation Warp Speed to create a COVID vaccine, has crafted a book that is both memoir and manifesto. Among the many lessons included, disease knows no politics is paramount. It refers to how the NIH should function, and how our society should manage its staggeringly dysfunctional health care system. To the greatest extent possible, science and public health must be kept separate from partisan politics. For Dr. Zerhouni, the principle disease knows no politics would be a guiding star as he steered the NIH through stormy political waters, including the embryonic stem cell research debate. As director, he believed the agency's mission was sacred. The NIH needed to be at the service of all Americans, regardless of their political preferences, race, sexual orientation, religion, or gender. No disease could be off limits. In a broader sense, in this memoir, as an academic leader, businessman, scientist, and doctor, Zerhouni provides lessons and insights relevant to readers of all these and other backgrounds seeking to advance their leadership skills and sharpen their business acumen. As a young man, Dr. Zerhouni journeyed from Algiers to Johns Hopkins, arriving in America with his loving wife Nadia and a few hundred dollars in his pocket. He built his career as a radiologist through heartfelt patient care and groundbreaking research. From using MRI to noninvasively put a magnetic tag on the beating heart, to differentiating between benign and malignant lung nodules with an innovative reference phantom, Dr. Zerhouni's work was defined by a relentless, empathetic spirit of innovation. Dr. Zerhouni rose the ranks of academia, helping to transform the research enterprise at Johns Hopkins by ushering in the same multidisciplinary approach that made his own lab excel, and which has, in the present, become the standard in the scientific world. Breaking down the barriers of scientific disciplines (for the purpose of meeting pressing research needs and energizing innovation) was a guiding principle dur