A memoir of medicine, scientific integrity, and the unwavering belief that disease knows no politics.

Disease Knows No Politics is an inspiring medical and political memoir that champions the American Dream and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) while recounting the extraordinary immigrant journey of Dr. Elias Zerhouni: former NIH director under President George W. Bush, presidential envoy under President Barack Obama, and treating physician for President Ronald Reagan.

Dr. Zerhouni, who was asked to consider directing President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed to create a COVID vaccine, has crafted a memoir and manifesto emphasizing that “disease knows no politics.” He argues that science and public health must remain separate from partisan politics. As NIH director, he upheld this principle while navigating political storms, including the embryonic stem cell debate, ensuring the agency served all Americans, regardless of politics, race, religion, or gender.

Arriving in America from Algiers with his wife, Nadia, and just a few hundred dollars, Dr. Zerhouni built his career as a radiologist through groundbreaking research. His work, from using MRI to tag the beating heart to differentiating between benign and malignant lung nodules, embodied relentless innovation. Rising through academia, he transformed research at Johns Hopkins by fostering multidisciplinary collaboration—an approach he later championed at the NIH.

At the NIH, he spearheaded the NIH Roadmap, a blueprint for 21st-century medical research, institutionalized with bipartisan support through the 2006 NIH Reform Act. Following his tenure at NIH, Dr. Zerhouni traveled the world as a presidential envoy, forging crucial scientific collaborations worldwide. Later, in the pharmaceutical industry, he helped guide and accelerate the creation of transformative therapies for patients, which he continues into the present.

Dr. Zerhouni credits America for making his success possible. His memoir is both a tribute to the country that shaped him and an urgent call to protect scientific integrity from political interference. Disease knows no politics.

About the Authors:

An accomplished public servant, Dr. Elias Zerhouni served as the 15th director of the National Institutes of Health (the first Arab American and immigrant to do so) under President George W. Bush and as a presidential envoy for science and technology under President Barack Obama.

Dr. Zerhouni is a former global health research senior fellow at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a consultant to the World Health Organization, and a consultant to the White House under President Ronald Reagan, among other duties. He’s currently an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine and the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. He has authored more than 200 publications, and his inventions have saved countless patients with suspected lung or breast cancer from unnecessary surgeries and advanced the field of cardiovascular MRI.

An entrepreneur, Elias is president of OPKO Health, a multinational biopharmaceutical and diagnostics company, and co-founder and chairman of OPKO’s ModeX Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on developing biologic drugs for cancer and infectious diseases.

Edward Kriz is a nonfiction author, who specializes in science and politics, and has coauthored for former university heads, political leaders, accomplished scientists, and business titans.