There is nothing wrong with underlining personal agency, but there is something unfair about using personal responsibility as a basis for assigning blame while simultaneously denying those who are being blamed the opportunity to exert agency in their lives

lean water and health care and school and food and tin roofs and cement floor, all of these things should constitute a set of basics that people must have as birthrights.

We have to design a health delivery system by actually talking to people and asking, 'What would make this service better for you?' As soon as you start asking, you get a flood of answers.

I would say that, intellectually, Catholicism had no more impact on me than did social theory.

I think we will see better vaccines within the next 15 years, but I'm not a scientist and am focused on the short-term - what will happen in the interim.

But as for activism, my parents did what they could, given the constraints, but were never involved in the causes I think of when I think of activists.

The model of the teaching hospital, which links research to teaching and service is what's missing in global health.