Raj Panjabi knows a thing or two about living with uncertainty.His family fled Liberia during the civil war, coming to the U.S.
when he was 9.And he and his wife faced a crisis when their youngest child was diagnosed with heart failure.
A physician, he served as malaria coordinator and then as global health security adviser in the Biden White House during the pandemic.Ben de la Cruz/NPR hide caption TUESDAY VERSIONDr.
Raj Panjabi's new book has a simple title: Safer: A Playbook.Yes, a playbook like the kind sports managers use to firm up a winning strategy.But playbooks aren't just for games."In the intensive care unit, we have a playbook when someone's heart stops beating," And when he was a White House health adviser during the COVID emergency, he says, "In the Situation Room, we had a playbook for pandemic preparedness."Then there was his own family's situation — at age 1, his daughter was diagnosed with heart failure.That experience inspired Panjabi to write a different kind of playbook.
"I was frustrated that we didn't have a playbook for crises that appear in our own living room."What he wrote is actually three books in one: The story of how he and his wife addressed their daughter's life-threatening condition; an exploration of public health issues that beset the globe – and straightforward advice for anyone with a living-room crisis.The book's chapter titles telegraph his philosophy: "Turn Denial Into Action." "Don't Go It Alone." "Get Ready to Pivot." "Embrace Uncertainty."Panjabi was born to Indian parents in Liberia; his family immigrated to the United States when he was 9.
He became a physician and went on to found the award-winning humanitarian group Last Mile Health, which employs community workers to bring health information to people in remote areas.Raj Panjabi is interviewed at NPR headquarters in Wash...