HIV and ID Observations

Our pal Paul Farmer keeps racking up the titles:

Dr. Paul Farmer, a pioneer in improving health services in the Third World, has been named chairman of Harvard Medical School’s Department of Global Health and Social Medicine …
(snip)
Peter Brown, spokesman for Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said Farmer also had been named to succeed Kim as head of the Division of Global Equity at the hospital, a Harvard teaching facility.

Of course what we we’re all wondering is whether he’ll stop with these, or go on also to accept a senior role in the Obama administration:

After weeks of feeling neglected and anxious that no new administrator has been named, USAID and international development community sources tell The Cable they are excited at reports that Paul Farmer, the legendary cofounder of an innovative group that has delivered healthcare to the poor in central Haiti and beyond, is under consideration to head the U.S. aid agency or serve in a top administration international assistance post that would encompass it.

Regardless of his decision, there is a huge irony here — which is that if ever there were a person in our field who couldn’t seem to care less about titles, it’s this guy.

Which is how it should be, of course.