Political Quotes

“Mr. President, last month, the world lost one of its great champions for public health, Dr. Paul Farmer. Few people did as much to save lives around the world as Paul. He was a giant. He changed how the world thinks about international aid and about public health. Millions of people, from Haiti to Peru, to Russia, to Rwanda, are living longer, healthier, more fulfilling lives because of Paul Farmer and because of the movement he launched. Paul moved to Haiti immediately after graduating from college. He had a special relationship with that country for the rest of his life. It is where he met his wife Didi Bertrand--a school principal and preacher's daughter in Cange. Even during Harvard Medical School, Paul would fly back and forth to Haiti, setting up his own clinic and an expanding network of community health facilities. In 1987, he and my friend Jim Yong Kim and their two colleagues, Ophelia Dahl and Todd McCormack, founded Partners in Health. They founded Partners in Health on Paul's radical idea, and it is a radical idea in so many ways; that all human beings, regardless of who they are and where they live, deserve equal dignity and equal healthcare. In 2003, the very good writer Tracy Kidder wrote a book about Paul and his life: ``Mountains Beyond Mountains.'' After Paul's death, Tracy wrote a tribute to him and titled it ``He Wanted to Make the Whole World His Patient,'' and he really did.…”