What a great Iowa humanitarian, Bill Foege, taught me

May 3, 2026 - 18:30

The Decorah-born scientist helped eradicate smallpox in India and Somalia, and that was just the start of his career, writes James Merchant. Bill Foege is not a household name, but his fingerprints are on one of humanity's greatest victories. As a young epidemiologist in the 1970s, he devised the "surveillance and containment" strategy that stopped smallpox in its tracks. Instead of trying to vaccinate every single person, he tracked the disease and ring-fenced its outbreaks. It was cheaper, faster, and it worked. He later led the Carter Center and helped drive Guinea worm disease toward extinction.

But what I remember most is not the statistics. It is the way he listened. I met him at a public health conference in Des Moines, a man in his eighties with kind eyes and a flat Midwestern accent. He did not lecture. He asked questions. He wanted to know what young people were seeing in their own communities. He told me that the biggest mistake in public health is assuming you know what people need before you ask them. He learned that lesson in a rural Indian village, where a vaccination campaign failed because no one had bothered to explain why it mattered.

His legacy is not just the diseases he helped erase. It is the humility he brought to the work. He taught me that great science is useless without trust, and trust is built one conversation at a time. In an age of loud opinions and quick fixes, Bill Foege stands as a reminder that the quietest people often change the world the most.