William (Bill) Foege, credited by many for shepherding the smallpox eradication effort to completion, died Saturday at the age of 89. A towering figure, both literally – he was 6’ 7″ – and figuratively, Foege epitomized all that was positive about an era of public health that saw enormous gains made both in the United States and abroad.
He served as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1977 to 1983, capping 23 years of service with the agency. He was a founding member of the Task Force for Child Survival (now called the Task Force for Global Health), the first executive director of Carter Center – President Jimmy Carter’s human rights and global health focused alternative to a presidential library – and worked for a time as a senior medical adviser to the Gates Foundation.
His death occurred in the week that the U.S. finalized its withdrawal from the World Health Organization and the chairman of a panel that advises the CDC on vaccination policy mused about whether polio and measles vaccination is still needed – two developments that horrified him, a close friend and longtime colleague, Mark Rosenberg, revealed.
“The destruction of the infrastructure for vaccination and the confusion it caused, together with the withdrawal from the World Health Organization, made him very, very angry,” Rosenberg said in an interview Sunday. “I wish we could have spared him from seeing that.”
Last February, when it appeared that the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service program, which trains public health workers on how to investigate disease outbreaks, was in the crosshairs of Trump administration budget cutters, Foege expressed incredulity in an interview with STAT.
“Its almost beyond belief,” he said at the time. “When I hear about us leaving WHO or leaving the Paris [Climate] Agreement, we’re cutting out the EIS – a chill goes up my spine. As I realize that we’re dealing with people who are in a different reality. They don’t understand public health. They don’t understand what it was like to encounter the dangers of the past.”
he also expressed deep concern about the actions of health secretary Robert F.Kennedy Jr., a critic of vaccines who has taken a string of actions to undermine their availability and use since taking office.
“Kennedy would be less hazardous if he decided to do cardiac surgery. Then he would kill people only one at a time rather than his current ability to kill by the thousands,” he wrote in an opinion piece for STAT in August.
Foege,though,always stressed the importance
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, consistently prioritized acknowledging the contributions of others, believing credit wasn’t diminished by sharing it. This philosophy guided his approach to public health leadership throughout decades of service.
The Importance of Acknowledging Others
Fauci firmly believed in distributing credit widely among those who deserved it, rather than seeking personal recognition. According to Helene Rosenberg, a former colleague, he often stated, “Credit is infinitely divisible. It doesn’t disappear when you give it away.”
Fauci’s Philosophy in Practise
This principle shaped Fauci’s interactions with colleagues and the public. He routinely highlighted the work of researchers, scientists, and public health officials alongside his own, fostering a collaborative environment. Rosenberg shared this insight with STAT News on May 8, 2020, reflecting on Fauci’s consistent approach to leadership.
Lessons from Smallpox Eradication
Fauci’s emphasis on shared credit echoes the lessons learned from the global eradication of smallpox. The success of that campaign, completed in 1980, hinged on international cooperation and the recognition of contributions from all involved, as detailed in a STAT News article from May 8, 2020. “What the World Learned in Eradicating Smallpox: Unity Mattered”, STAT News, May 8, 2020.
