May's Member Luncheon featured physician, epidemiologist, and TED sensation Dr. Larry Brilliant in conversation with MCBA Program Chair Barrett Schaefer. A talented storyteller and engaging speaker, Dr. Brilliant reflected on his extraordinary life journey across continents, from eradicating smallpox in India to leading Google's philanthropic foundation.

Eradicating Smallpox

Dr. Brilliant came into the public spotlight in 1969, when a group of Native Americans occupied Alcatraz. The group put out a call for a doctor to assist in delivering a baby. Dr. Brilliant volunteered and joined the occupation. When the US government medevac’d the new family and their doctor, the news media interviewed Dr. Brilliant. He became an instant sensation.

Based on that episode, Warner Brothers offered him a role in a movie as the doctor for a tribe of hippies who followed the Grateful Dead and other musical icons of the 1970s. The movie company paid the cast with airline tickets to India. Dr. Brilliant and others, including Wavy Gravy, who would become a lifelong friend, cashed in their tickets and rented a bus to travel around Europe. They eventually found their way to India. At an ashram, a persistent and visionary Hindu sage set Dr. Brilliant on the path towards his life’s work: eradicating smallpox.

Dr. Brilliant joined with the World Health Organization on a mission to eliminate the devastating disease. Working with a multi-national, multi-cultural team, Dr. Brilliant went house-to-house identifying outbreaks of the disease and then vaccinating the population around them to contain its spread. The seemingly impossible mission succeeded.

Reflecting on this remarkable accomplishment, Dr. Brilliant commented that it took “every religion and every language working together to conquer smallpox.” In today’s world, it seems as if there are “so many forces dividing us that we can’t work together with people who don’t look like us. But that is not true.”

Preventing Pandemics

Dr. Brilliant sounded a sober warning about the power of pandemics to destroy life as we know it. He said that a serious pandemic is likely to occur, if not in our lifetime, in our children’s or grandchildren’s lifetimes. He offered two reasons why. First, more viruses are being transmitted from animals to humans and airline travel makes it possible for them to spread rapidly. Second, the rise of nationalism has weakened our global defenses. After World War II, international entities such as the World Health Organization were established so that countries could cooperate against worldwide threats. Today, these organizations have been defunded to the point where they can no longer keep us safe; the WHO’s budget is smaller than that of the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Dr. Brilliant called nationalistic movements “parochial and selfish” and noted that “You can’t solve a global problem at the national level.”

Dr. Brilliant has partnered with tech giants to fill that void. He worked with Google to create a digital disease surveillance program that replicates the effect of the door-to-door surveying that was so critical to the smallpox eradication effort. Dr. Brilliant is also leading an effort, funded with $50 million in seed funding by former eBay President Jeff Skoll, to build a global pandemic defense in ten years. Dr. Brilliant acknowledged that this was an ambitious goal. Beyond the logistical and technological challenges, he noted that a more fundamental question remains unanswered: “Can public health goals be served by private organizations?” Nevertheless, he is optimistic that the investment will bear fruit.

Vaccinations

In recent years, Marin has received national attention for its high rates of unvaccinated children. When asked about this phenomenon, Dr. Brilliant made clear that vaccinations are critical to the health of our society. He said that the anti-vaccination movement has resulted in the resurgence of previously rare diseases; there were over 500 cases of measles nationwide in a recent year for a disease that had been eradicated in the U.S. Three years ago, children in Marin were unvaccinated at more than double the national rate. That rate has now dropped back down. With respect to the connection between autism and vaccinations, Dr. Brilliant did not mince words: “It’s fake news that vaccinations are linked to autism. There is no science behind it. It’s a lie.” He did note that all vaccines carry a tiny risk of death and thus it is not irrational to withhold the vaccine from your own child if everyone else’s is vaccinated.

Dr. Brilliant answered a variety of questions from the audience. When asked for his thoughts on the recent Presidential election, he stated that he assisted with President Bush’s anti-bioterrorism efforts and would work with the current administration if called upon to do so: “I am an American and a patriot.”

Dr. Brilliant had the audience laughing when asked to address rumors of his “threesome” with the Dalai Lama. Spoiler alert: it is not what it sounds like. But the full story is available in Dr. Brilliant’s recent book, Sometimes Brilliant: The Impossible Adventures of a Spiritual Seeker and Visionary Physician Who Helped Conquer the Worst Disease in History.

To learn more about Dr. Brilliant, check out Sometimes Brilliant.