Category: D.A. Henderson

The Public Health Prophet We Did Not Heed

Commentary Donald Henderson, who died in 2016, was a giant in the field of epidemiology and public health. He was also a man whose prophetic warnings from 2006 we chose to ignore in March of 2020. Dr. Henderson directed a ten-year international effort from 1967–1977 that successfully eradicated smallpox. Following this, he served as Dean…


The Vindication of D.A. Henderson

Commentary “We were going to invent pandemic planning.” Those were the words of Dr. Rajeev Venkayya in 2005 when he headed the White House bioterrorism study group under George W. Bush. “We want to use all instruments of national power to confront this threat,” Venkayya told colleagues in the administration, as reported by Michael Lewis…