Thomas Bollyky

Law professor Thomas Bollyky explores the paradox behind our fight against infectious diseases – the world is getting healthier but in ways that should make us worry.

Bollyky says that for the first time in the world’s history plagues and parasites are not the leading cause of death. However, recent reductions in infectious disease have not been accompanied by improvements in income and job opportunities seen in wealthier countries decades ago. Low-cost health tools have contributed to the rise of poor world megacities. What we do next, he argues, will decide whether that progress on health will bring peril or opportunity.

Bollyky is director of the global health program at the US think tank and publisher, the Council on Foreign Relations, and an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University.

This event is part of the festival’s American programme.

Presented by MIT Press