john green at the union
John Green – the Keynote Speaker at the World Conference on Lung Health
The Bestselling Author’s Unexpected Mission
Author John Green was the Keynote Speaker at the World Conference on Lung Health in November 2025. You might know John Green as the acclaimed author behind The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska, but did you know he’s become one of TB’s most vocal advocates?
The Journey Begins
In 2019, Green visited Sierra Leone with Partners In Health (PIH), where he met Henry Reider, a young man being treated for tuberculosis at Lakka Government Hospital. This encounter transformed Green’s life and career trajectory.
From Awareness to Action
Over the past five years, Green has:
- Written a Book: Published Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection in March 2025, which became a #1 New York Times bestseller
- Pressured Corporations: In 2023, after Green posted a scathing YouTube video, Johnson & Johnson agreed not to enforce a secondary patent of its TB pill bedaquiline in 134 low- and middle-income countries, allowing for less-expensive generic versions
- Created a Movement: His online community, Nerdfighteria, formed a grassroots network called TBFighters, with over 100 members travelling to Washington, D.C. for TB Hill Day advocacy
- Invested in Solutions: Green and his family committed up to $4 million toward a $57 million public-private partnership with USAID and the Philippines to test and treat tuberculosis
- Spoke at the UN: Green addressed the United Nations High-Level Meeting on the Fight to End Tuberculosis in 2023
The Message
“There’s no excuse for people dying of tuberculosis in 2025. We’ve known how to cure this disease since the 1950s, so why are over a million people dying of tuberculosis?”
Green’s advocacy demonstrates that TB isn’t just a medical challenge, it’s a matter of global justice and human choice.
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