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Elon Cancelled This...Let's Do it Anyway

2025-10-28 · documentary visit · John · 4:36 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Global development (also: Books & writing) · mode: Personal essay · tags: on location, heavy topic

Visiting Guimaras in the Philippines, John reports on the tuberculosis elimination project his family funds with the Philippine government and Partners In Health after USAID abandoned its share: mass screening, portable AI-assisted x-rays and a hospital with gaps. He argues that lasting change is possible and that Guimaras could be a blueprint for ending TB everywhere.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The journey via Manila and Iloilo to Guimaras; the Philippines' TB prevalence

  • ★★ John flew into Manila, slept two hours, flew to Iloilo, met TB workers and took a ferry to Guimaras. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John says Guimaras is famous for its mangoes and hopefully will soon be famous for its tuberculosis eradication program. (hedged) — 00:00:00 · tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John says the Philippines has the highest per capita prevalence of TB in the world. — 00:00:00 · tuberculosis

00:00:29 — The island's welcome; how TB is eliminated from a community; comprehensive care; who funds the project

  • ★ John calls Guimaras one of the loveliest places he has visited, and not only because he got a mango necklace and welcome signs. (playful) — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ John says we know how to eliminate TB from a community: actively search for cases, cure everyone found, and give close contacts preventive therapy. — 00:00:29 · tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John says this has been known to work for decades but is generally not done because it is deemed too expensive or labor-intensive. — 00:00:58 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ John says comprehensive care has other advantages, such as screening for high blood pressure and other illnesses at pop-up community screening sites. — 00:00:58
  • ★★★ John says the Guimaras TB elimination project is funded mostly by the Philippine government and partly by Sarah and John, with support from Partners In Health. — 00:00:58 · Partners In Health, Sarah Urist Green

00:01:27 — USAID's withdrawal; screening progress, portable AI-assisted x-rays and GeneXpert tests; the mango

  • ★★★ John says USAID abandoned its commitment to fund part of the project, but PIH, Sarah and John stayed committed because the Philippine government did. — 00:01:27 · Partners In Health, Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★★ John reports that this month (October 2025) about 5% of the island's people have been screened for TB, leading to over 750 diagnoses and much preventive care. — 00:01:27 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ John says an ultra-portable x-ray gives free screening with immediate AI-assisted results; a positive x-ray leads to a GeneXpert test with a TB answer within a day. — 00:01:56
  • ★ John says he ate a truly extraordinary mango there, by far the greatest of his life. (playful) — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John met many health care workers who read his books and did a small signing for some TB champions, regretting he had no time for a proper signing. — 00:01:56

00:02:26 — Health workers who read his books, a small signing, lunch with the governor

  • ★★ John says it is strange and wonderful that his books have traveled far more widely than he has. — 00:02:26
  • ★★ John had lunch with the governor, Dr. Nava, who is also an infectious disease doctor. — 00:02:26

00:02:55 — The local hospital: supplies, gaps and an expansion

  • ★★ John says the local hospital is well supplied and staffed with a new CT scanner, but its x-ray machines break, it lacks UV lights and has too few beds for nearly 200,000 people. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ John says the hospital is building an expansion and TB screening there has risen sharply. — 00:02:55 · tuberculosis

00:03:24 — TB is rampant though curable; many people make lasting change; Guimaras as a TB-free blueprint; sign-off

  • ★★★ John says by some estimates around 3% of people in Guimaras currently have active TB. — 00:03:24 · tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John says Guimaras is not a special hotspot: TB is rampant throughout much of the world even though we know how to cure it. — 00:03:24 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ John says he is grateful he fell in hate with TB, which has let him know hundreds of people working hard on a complicated problem. — 00:03:24 · tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John says it takes many people, from preventive therapy champions to political leaders, to bring lasting change, and he knows lasting change is possible. — 00:03:53
  • ★★ John says he is frustrated that his government has not shown up the way it promised to. — 00:03:53
  • ★★★ John believes Guimaras could be the first TB-free region of the Philippines, and if it is possible there, it is possible everywhere. (hedged) — 00:03:53 · tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John says that with Guimaras as a blueprint for the world, he might live to see a world that no longer loses over a million people a year to TB. (hedged) — 00:03:53 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ John says over a million people are lost every year to TB, a curable disease. — 00:03:53 · tuberculosis

In the description and comments

  • ★★ Answering a viewer in the comments, John says USAID was very slow to embrace TB preventive therapy and somewhat slow on curative treatment for some forms of TB. — creator comment · tuberculosis
  • ★★ In the comments John says USAID is part of why TB deaths fell by 50% over the last 25 years; the progress is real but inadequate. — creator comment · tuberculosis

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Guimaras · Philippines · tuberculosis

Also: People: Nava · Sarah Urist Green

Organizations: Partners In Health · United States Agency for International Development

Concepts: active case finding · artificial intelligence · CT scan · hypertension · infectious disease · ultraviolet · X-ray

Places: Iloilo · Manila

Events: Halloween (holiday)

Products: GeneXpert

Only in the description or credits: Elon Musk

Also centred on Philippines: Our $80,000,000 Bet

Later videos replying to this one

  • 2025-10-31 · We Did It… (Hank) — continues — “So John, this week you uploaded a video about the work being done to try and fight tuberculosis in the Philippines.” (00:00:29)

Part of an exchange of 6 videos, 2025-10-28 – 2025-11-11.