Health, Science, and Technology

Video

Prioritizing Non-Communicable Diseases

Interviewer: Toni Johnson
Interviewee: Derek Yach

Derek Yach, director of global health policy at PepsiCo, discusses the role of government and business in lowering mortality rates from non-communicable diseases (NCDs). "We now have overwhelming evidence, both of the health impact, and perhaps as importantly, we're starting to see the economic impact of heart disease, diabites, chronic lung disease, cancer," says Yach, arguing this data is raising global interest in the issue of NCDs.

See more in Global Health

Video

9/11 Perspectives: U.S. Disaster Preparedness

Speaker: Laurie Garrett

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