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 during his later tenure as NIH director. The NIH needed to be restructured to support crucial multidisciplinary research projects. Drawing input from the scientific community, Dr. Zerhouni spearheaded the creation of the NIH Roadmap, a blueprint for 21st century medical research. This roadmap was later institutionalized in 2006 with the passing of the NIH Reform Act through overwhelming bipartisan support and the leadership of key legislators such as Senator Ted Kennedy. Here, Congress realized: Disease Knows No Politics. Dr. Zerhouni’s commitment to bipartisanship and protecting the NIH from political interference was unflinching and matched only by his unwavering support for young investigators and pioneering, breakthrough science.
Following his tenure at NIH, Dr. Zerhouni traveled the world as a presidential envoy for Barack Obama, helping to foster scientific and technological collaborations between the United States and foreign countries. Among other places, his travels took him from Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s India.
Later, in the pharma industry, at Sanofi, and eventually, ModeX and OPKO, Dr. Zerhouni helped accelerate the transformation of discoveries into groundbreaking therapies for patients. His memoir ends as his career, and battle to free patients from suffering and disease, presses on.
Despite all he has accomplished, Dr. Zerhouni remains humble, and he credits the greatness of the United States for making his American Dream possible. He believes that only in America could he have risen so high. His memoir, while recounting his life story, is fashioned to serve the country that has given him so much.
