The CommonHealth

• Prevention Intention: Wafaa El-Sadr on People and Persistence in HIV Research

  In the second episode of the Prevention Intention mini-series, Katherine speaks with Wafaa El-Sadr, University Professor in Epidemiology at Columbia University and the director of ICAP. They discuss El-Sadr’s formative experience treating AIDS patients in New York City in the early 1980s, as the global HIV epidemic began to emerge; her decision to found ICAP in order to bring HIV treatments to patients worldwide; and ICAP’s contributions to HIV prevention research. They also cover the evolution of PEPFAR, the challenges and opportunities associated with current efforts to reform U.S. global health assistance, and El-Sadr’s emphasis on ensuring people and their communities are at the heart of all health research and service delivery endeavors.

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• Prevention Intention: Linda-Gail Bekker on HIV Prevention with Purpose

  In the first episode of the Prevention Intention mini-series, a series featuring conversations with leading female HIV clinical researchers, Katherine speaks with Linda-Gail Bekker, a medical doctor and director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the University of Cape Town.  They discuss Bekker's decision to focus her work on HIV as well as her involvement in the PURPOSE 1 clinical trials, which demonstrated the efficacy of long-acting pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among adolescent girls and young women in South Africa and Uganda. They also cover why it’s important to approach research as a highly collaborative endeavor that both contributes to scientific understanding and improves people’s lives.

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• Erika Elvander, former U.S. Health Attache in Beijing: “It behooves us to find the common ground.”

  Erika Elvander served her country as a federal career health diplomat for 27 years, including as the U.S. Health Attache in Beijing from the spring 2021 until the end of 2024. Her Asia passion ignited while a student in Hong Kong and traveler to Beijing in the late 1980s. And carried forward for the following decades. As Health Attache in Beijing during COVID, she witnessed China “digging in,” pursuing its 18 months of the fierce controls imposed under “static management.” "Achievements with China are incremental.” She was able to maintain dialogues with Chinese health officials, despite the fraught US-China relationship. Today, the COVID origins quagmire does persist and impede the U.S.-China relationship, six years after the advent of Covid. But “there has to be a path forward,” built on many opportunities in health.

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• Marian Wentworth, MSH: "I have been working since I was 13."

  Marian Wentworth, President & CEO, Management Sciences for Health (MSH), at age 13 started working in a local factory. Attended the famous Latin School in Chicago. Studied math at Harvard. Then joined Merck as it was "growing ferociously fast." Stayed 27 years, grew and led the vaccine business to $6 billion. Was the "quant jock." Spearheaded the launch of Gardasil, the HPV vaccine. Then pivoted to MSH. It was important "not having a pharmaceutical company on my business card." Now as she reflects on the stunning year of 2025, a series of radical pivots for MSH, is there space for MSH in the America First Global Health Strategy? Yes. Excited by the Accra Reset? Yes. Where does this leave MSH? "I believe this time is a crucible."

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• Rep. Adam Smith on Engaging China

  Listen to the recent CSIS Bipartisan Alliance for Health Security discussion with Congressman Adam Smith (WA-09), Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, on his experience leading a Congressional delegation to China in late September 2025. Rep. Smith’s bipartisan delegation—the first House delegation to travel to China since 2019—pressed for high-level military-to-military dialogue between the world’s leading superpowers. What reception did they receive from their Chinese counterparts, what messages did they impart, and how has the dialogue with his colleagues evolved since his return to Washington? What did the trip reveal and how does he expect to see the bilateral relationship evolve—including on key issues such as the debate over fentanyl—into the new year?  Following welcoming remarks from John J. Hamre, CSIS CEO and Langone Chair in American Leadership, J. Stephen Morrison, Senior Vice President and Director of the CSIS Global Health Policy Center, moderates the discussion.

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