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12 O’Clock High-a podcast on business leadership

Walter Reed and Conquering Yellow Fever


Richard Lummis and I are back with more business leadership lessons. In a nod to the current Coronavirus health crisis, we wanted to look for leadership lessons in prior epidemic emergencies. Today, we take a look at leadership lessons Colonel Walter Reed, as he led the team which discovered what caused yellow fever, how yellow fever was transmitted and developed steps to eradicate it.
Highlights of this podcast include:

  1. Background of Walter Reed and his work on to discover how typhoid was transmitted.
  2. Formation of the Yellow Fever Commission
  3. Two key questions-what caused yellow fever and how was it transmitted?
  4. Conduct of the experiments.
  5. Ethics of the experiments.
  6. What about the participants. Why did they participate? Is there one right reason?
  7. Early death and legacy.
  8. Final thoughts on leadership lessons

Resources
Yellow Fever Commission
Soldiers Participation in the study
General Biography of Reed