Pulitzer winner Laurie Garrett studies global health and disease prevention. Her books include "The Coming Plague" and "Betrayal of Trust," about the crisis in global public health.

Why you should listen

Laurie Garrett has made a career of uncovering science and policy news that is almost too depressing to know: emerging and re-emerging diseases, and the world's general inability to deal with them. In the process, she has uncovered gaping lapses in public health and policy.

Garrett is the author of The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance and Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health. As a science writer for Newsday, Garrett won a Pulitzer, a Peabody and two Polk awards; in 2004, she joined the Council on Foreign Relations as Senior Fellow for Global Health. She is an expert on public health -- and the fascinating ways that health policy affects foreign policy and national security.

Laurie Garrett’s TED talk

More news and ideas from Laurie Garrett

The week in comments

May 3, 2009

This was an especially lively week on the TED commenting front, as our community tackled debates on swine flu, race and politics, and globalization. These amazing discussions can get a little heated — so we appreciate that there always seems to be a voice of reason that emerges from the group to soothe frazzled nerves […]

Continue reading