Dr. John Varallo is the Global Director of Safe Surgery at the Johns Hopkins Program for Global Education in Gynecology and Obstetrics, also known by its acronym, JHPIEGO. John works both overseas, running JHPIEGO programs in low-income countries in Africa and Asia, as well as with marginalized communities in the USA. During the COVID pandemic, he has been working with underserved communities in Alaska.  

In Episode 5, we explore the ethics of providing health care in poor communities in other countries and in our own here in the medically underserved zones of the United States. John shares his lens as a teacher, health strategist, global health leader, and lifelong champion of global, and local, heath equity.

Global health ethics: critical reflections on the contours of an emerging field, 1977–2015

It’s far too complicated’: why fragmentation persists in global health

The financial sustainability of the World Health Organization and the political economy of global health governance: a review of funding proposals .  "We argue that while financial reform requires institutional changes to enhance transparency, accountability and efficiency, it is also deeply tied to the political economy of state sovereignty and ideas about the leadership role of the WHO in a crowded global health governance context."