From Singapore to Global Health Action
A young doctor in Singapore gets a phone call out of nowhere. His mentor asks if he wants to work for the World Health Organization in Indonesia, fighting bird flu. He says yes. That one call changes his career and puts Singapore on the global health map.
This is part of my retelling of “50 Years of Singapore and the United Nations” (Tommy Koh, Li Lin Chang, Joanna Koh, 2015, ISBN: 978-9814713030).
Chapter 31 is written by Vernon Lee, a preventive medicine doctor who went from specialist training in Singapore to working with the WHO in Indonesia and later at WHO headquarters in Geneva. His story is personal and honest. He talks about what it is actually like to fight disease outbreaks in the field and then navigate the politics of global health in Geneva.
The Call That Changed Everything
In 2006, Vernon Lee was still finishing his specialist training. Working at the WHO was, as he puts it, “a distant dream” for most young doctors. It was a place where senior global health experts walked the hallways. Not young trainees.
But he had built expertise in influenza and pandemic preparedness. And Singapore had built a reputation for handling disease outbreaks after SARS. When Indonesia asked the WHO for technical help dealing with H5N1 avian influenza, the WHO turned to Singapore. And Singapore turned to Vernon Lee.
His mentor, Prof Goh Kee Tai, made the call. Vernon said yes. He admits he felt some fear. He calls it a “mammoth weight” on his shoulders. But he went.
Fighting Bird Flu in Indonesia
Vernon landed in Indonesia and got to work fast. He responded to avian influenza outbreaks and helped the Indonesian Ministry of Health develop their national pandemic preparedness plan.
The biggest achievement came in 2008. They organized the world’s first field exercise for containing a novel influenza outbreak. It happened on the island of Bali. More than 1,000 people took part: officials, healthcare workers, law enforcement, military, community leaders, and regular villagers. They ran the whole thing in a Balinese village about two hours from the tourist areas. It involved the main hospital and the airport.
The exercise validated a full year of preparations. Officials from dozens of countries watched. It showed the world that Indonesia could handle emerging disease threats. Six years later, in 2014, Vernon was in Jakarta for another meeting and saw a video of that same exercise being shown as a highlight of Indonesia’s contributions to global health. That must have felt good.
The Language Made the Difference
Here is a detail that stuck with me. The WHO office did not give Vernon a translator. Unlike other agencies, they just expected you to figure it out.
At first that sounds tough. But Vernon says it turned out to be one of the best things that happened. He had to learn Bahasa Indonesia. And by speaking the local language, he could actually connect with people. Share a joke over tea. Hear personal stories. Get invited to their homes.
A translator gives you the words. But speaking someone’s language gives you the relationship.
A year after leaving Indonesia, Vernon visited Bali for a WHO meeting. At the airport, someone called out his name. It was an airport official he had worked with during the field exercise. They recognized him in a big crowd and stopped to catch up. Those kinds of moments are the real payoff for the hard work, Vernon writes.
Being Young in a World of Seniors
Vernon does not hide the fact that being young was a problem at first. In global health circles, people expect experts to be older. The assumption is that age equals expertise. Some stakeholders were openly skeptical about taking advice from a young doctor.
But he earned their respect quickly once the work started. And he says this happened again later in Geneva. Each time, he had to prove himself from scratch. But the upside was that it showed the international community what young Singaporean professionals are capable of. Singapore invests heavily in training young people. Vernon was living proof that the investment pays off.
Geneva: The Politics of Global Health
After Indonesia, Vernon kept contributing to WHO expert groups. During the 2009 influenza pandemic, Singapore made big contributions to global health policy and research. This built Singapore’s reputation even further.
In 2010, Vernon was seconded to WHO headquarters in Geneva as Advisor to the Assistant Director General for Health Security and Environment. He stayed until 2012.
In Geneva, the work was different. He led efforts to strengthen global health security, pandemic preparedness, and fight antimicrobial resistance. The big challenge was not the science. It was the politics. He had to bring countries and individuals with completely different interests to the same table and somehow reach agreement on policies that affect the entire world.
The Hardest Lesson: You Cannot Just Lay Your Cards on the Table
This is one of the most honest parts of the chapter.
Vernon says Singaporeans are very direct. A WHO colleague told him that Singaporeans tend to lay all their cards on the table. At first, Vernon thought that was a good thing. He figured that no country could possibly disagree about obvious global health issues like childhood vaccination or sharing information about emerging diseases.
He was wrong.
Global health diplomacy is tangled up with broader politics. Countries and individuals make decisions that look completely irrational at first glance. Sometimes even callous when you think about the impact on human lives. But they have reasons that go beyond health. Geopolitics, domestic politics, money, power.
Vernon learned that being honest and direct is a noble trait. But getting a room full of countries to agree requires a different set of skills. You need diplomacy. And that is not something most Singaporeans are naturally trained for.
The Real Negotiations Happen Over Coffee
Another lesson Vernon picked up: the big decisions do not happen at the meeting table. They happen during coffee breaks and lunches. The casual setting breaks through barriers that formal negotiations cannot.
He also learned that a warm home-cooked meal on a cold winter night in Geneva was one of the best ways to build lasting friendships with colleagues. Especially when families were involved.
It sounds simple. But personal relationships and networks are how global health governance actually works behind the scenes. The formal meetings just ratify what was already agreed over coffee.
Bringing Health and Military Together
One of Vernon’s specific challenges in Geneva was getting the health sector and the military to work together. This sounds obvious but it was not.
Many health professionals were suspicious of the military. They worried about intelligence agendas and offensive purposes. On the other side, the military is often one of the first responders to health emergencies in many countries. They have resources, logistics, and people on the ground.
There was a similar wall between the WHO and the private pharmaceutical sector. Critics accused drug companies of influencing WHO policy in exchange for political or financial support. But the WHO also needs to tell companies what medicines and vaccines the world needs.
Vernon’s position was clear: regardless of anyone’s individual agenda, all sectors must work together. The alternative is wasted resources and duplicated effort. After a lot of education and bridge-building, cross-sector collaboration became more common at both national and international levels.
Building Networks That Last
Vernon makes a strong point about networks. The relationships he built during his WHO years created lasting connections with officials and experts around the world. Many of those people had heard of Singapore but never visited or worked with anyone from there. Meeting Vernon shaped their impression of the country and its people.
But networks need maintenance. They take years to build and can disappear without continued effort. Vernon argues that Singapore must keep sending people to work with international organizations like the WHO. Each person who goes is a window to new connections.
Paying It Forward
Since returning from his WHO secondments, Vernon has been actively looking for young Singaporean professionals who have the potential to represent the country on the international stage. He wants to give them the same opportunities his mentor gave him.
That phone call from Prof Goh Kee Tai in 2006 started a chain. Vernon is trying to keep it going.
About the Author
Vernon Lee is a preventive medicine physician and was Head of the Singapore Armed Forces Biodefence Centre at the time of writing, in charge of preparedness and response to infectious diseases in the Singapore military. He is also an Advisor to the Public Health Group in the Ministry of Health and an adjunct Associate Professor at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore. He has more than 80 scientific publications in infectious diseases and public health. He served as Advisor to the Assistant Director General for Health, Security and Environment at WHO headquarters from 2010 to 2012, and was a Medical Epidemiologist in the WHO Office in Indonesia from 2007 to 2008. He continues to contribute to WHO advisory and expert working groups on infectious diseases.
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