What makes people healthy beyond healthcare? In the second installment of this series, Martin Goldstein, Senior Fellow ALI '21, talks with Dr. Don Berwick, former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Dr. Berwick widens the lens from the healthcare system to the conditions that shape health itself, exploring how fairness, agency, basic rights, and leadership can give everyone a real chance to realize their potential and what responsibility society bears for creating those conditions.

How do we make healthcare better – and toward what end? Don Berwick begins with the healthcare system itself, examining why choosing what to improve is a moral declaration, how commitments to quality and equity shape that choice, and what the American healthcare system is actually designed to achieve and whom it is designed to serve.

As the world neglects the continuing threat of mpox, in West Africa the crisis remains severe. Sierra Leone recently reversed its surge of cases, but outbreaks have swept into other African countries. Fortunately, new digital tools give community leaders a fighting chance. Tom Mahoney (ALI ’24) interviews Dr. Pardis Sabeti and Colby Wilkason on turning science into grassroots action.

The CDC’s leadership faced mounting challenges as trust faltered, disinformation spread, and vaccine confidence declined in a polarized environment. Communication missteps and evolving guidance weakened public understanding, while budget cuts constrained response capacity. Former CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky reflects on lessons in rebuilding trust, defending science, and restoring confidence through transparency, clarity, and steady leadership amid uncertainty and polarization.

The recent replacement of the entire CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) raises serious public health concerns, as explored in this interview with infectious disease expert, Dr. Camille Kotton, former ACIP member, by Tom Mahoney (ALI ’24).

With mpox re-emerging as a global health threat, particularly in resource-constrained African countries and with severe impacts on children, Dr. Marie Roseline Darnycka Belizaire of the WHO examines the rapid resurgence since the 2022 outbreak, inequities in the response, and strategies for addressing the crisis through collaboration and community-centered interventions.