Laurie Garrett
Senior Fellow for Global Health
Expertise
Global health systems; chronic and infectious diseases; bioterrorism; public health and its effects on foreign policy and national security.
Programs
Global Health Program
Featured Publications
CFR Senior Fellow for Global Health Laurie Garrett discusses the rising vulnerabilities to the world's medicine and drug supply as a result of the increasingly globalized supply chain, and presents six steps the G8 and G20 states should take to combat the growing problem of counterfeit and substandard medicines and ensure the reliability of the world's drug and vaccine supply.
See more in Global Health
Laurie Garrett discusses the current state of global health programs.
See more in Financial Crises, Global Health
Most countries in the world have moved toward provision of systems of universal health coverage, enhancing affordability and access to medical care. Even as the U.S. Supreme Court debates legal standards for Americans, this report finds that risk-pooling is essential for affordable access to medical care in poor and emerging-market countries.
See more in Global Health
All Publications
Laurie Garrett reviews the complex social, political, and financial issues at play ahead of the U.S. presidential election and their implications for domestic and global health programs.
See more in United States, Global Health, Health, U.S. Election 2012
Laurie Garrett says U.S. support for global efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, though likely not to receive any thank yous, is significant.
See more in United States, Global Health
Efforts to vaccinate Pakistani children are in peril after the CIA's vaccine ploy to help capture Osama bin Laden, placing the entire region at risk of outbreaks, says CFR's Laurie Garrett.
See more in Pakistan, Health and Disease, Terrorism
The Supreme Court's ruling on the U.S. health-care law helps bring domestic and foreign policies on health-care access and spending priorities into closer alignment, says CFR's Laurie Garrett.
See more in United States, Health
Laurie Garrett and Steven A. Cook discuss the threats of Avian flu and foot and mouth disease in Egypt.
See more in Egypt, Health and Disease, Public Health Threats, Health
Laurie Garrett discusses the tenth anniversary of the post-9/11 anthrax attacks and argues, ""If 9/11 marked the single most powerful moment of American unity since Pearl Harbor, the anthrax mailings ushered the opposite..."
See more in United States, 9/11, Public Health Threats
Laurie Garrett discusses the FRONTLINE documentary, "The Anthrax Letters."
See more in United States, 9/11, Health, Science, and Technology, Global Health, Public Health Threats, Terrorism
Laurie Garrett, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, explores the lasting impact of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the anthrax attacks that followed on disaster preparedness and health policy in the United States. Garrett argues that "all our readiness response depends on well-funded police, well-funded fire departments, well-funded hospitals, well-funded public health infrastructures, and precisely the opposite is where we are going right now." Garrett cautions that U.S. preparedness for a major terrorist attack may be decreasing. "As budgets are being cut at the federal level, the state level, and the local level, we're actually less ready than we were in 2001," Garrett says.
See more in United States, 9/11, Global Health
Famine in the Horn of Africa underscores the problems of an international foreign aid community struggling to keep up with its commitments at a time of a falling dollar and rising food prices, says CFR's Laurie Garrett.
See more in Horn of Africa, Economics, Food Security, Foreign Aid
Missing from the body of literature about 9/11 and the anthrax scare that followed is a sense of what 2001 felt like for those that experienced the events in a very personal way. This book bridges the divide and offers new insights into the period, presenting its profound implications for public health, mass psychology, governance, scientific integrity, social resilience and cohesion, criminal justice, and America's sense of itself.
See more in United States, Terrorist Attacks
Orin Levine and Laurie Garrett argue that the CIA's staged vaccination program in Pakistan, used to locate Osama bin Laden, has damaged the credibility of legitimate global health efforts.
See more in Pakistan, Intelligence, Global Health
With the UN meeting on AIDS funding this week, CFR's Laurie Garrett says the slow response to the AIDS epidemic was the single biggest failure in public health and argues the need to double funding for new treatments to stop the spread of the disease.
See more in Africa, Global Health
In the aftermath of Japan's earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis, Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow for Global Health Laurie Garrett discusses the health concerns the country faces.
See more in Japan, Energy/Environment, Disasters, Environmental Pollution
Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow for Global Health Laurie Garrett criticizes NRC chair for sowing panic when he said Japan is understating health risks.
See more in Japan, Energy/Environment, Disasters
Laurie Garrett says the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has "launched a tsunami of panic that has spread further worldwide than the real tsunami that devastated much of Japan on March 11."
See more in Japan, Energy/Environment, Disasters, Global Health
While many questions remain about the problems at Fukushima nuclear plant, comparisons with the 1986 Chernobyl incident suggest Japan's government is taking the right steps to mitigate radiation damage, says CFR's Laurie Garrett.
See more in Japan, Energy/Environment, Disasters
The White House's proposed budget for FY2012 tries to balance spending cuts with investment to boost competitiveness. CFR experts examine how well it handles deficit reduction, defense, foreign aid, and spurring innovation.
See more in United States, Economics, U.S. Strategy and Politics
CFR's Senior Fellow for Global Health, Laurie Garrett, discusses the drivers of rising global food prices, including increasing demand for meat, biofuels, price speculation, and severe weather events.
See more in United States, Food Security
CFR's Senior Fellow for Global Health, Laurie Garrett, discusses the implications of rising food prices on global health.
See more in Middle East, Global Health, Food Security
The cholera epidemic that has added to the list of Haiti's post-earthquake miseries is a reminder that what Haiti needs more than anything else is good governance that would lead to better infrastructure and safe water.
See more in Haiti, Health, Science, and Technology
Featured Press
HIV at 50+
Laurie Garrett moderated this panel at the XIX International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC. Doctors, researchers, and international policymakers discussed the implications of a growing HIV population over 50 years of age and what is required in order to address the new challenges in this aging population, in regards to medicine as well as research and policy.
Dual Uses for Avian Flu Research
Charlotte Howard of the Economist interviewed Laurie Garrett about the controversial bird flu (H5N1) research conducted by Dr. Ron Fouchier at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands. Garrett discusses the contention surrounding duel-use research and the lack of international consensus regarding research regulation.
A Conversation with Peter Piot: No Time to Lose
Laurie Garrett interviews Peter Piot, who discovered the Ebola virus, about his new book No Time to Lose.
Map: Vaccine-Preventable Outbreaks

This interactive map visually plots diseases that are easily preventable by inexpensive and effective vaccines. The Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations has been tracking news reports on these outbreaks since the fall of 2008.
More About Laurie Garrett
See more at Laurie Garrett's personal website, lauriegarrett.com.