Jimmy Carter’s Lasting Legacy in Public Health
Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel highlighted former President Jimmy Carter’s global efforts to educate on public health and the awareness he brought to melanoma and hospice care. Carter, who passed away on December 29 at the age of 100, is remembered for his humanitarian work, earning a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts and promote economic and social development.
The Plains, Georgia, native undertook peace negotiations, campaigned for human rights, and worked for social welfare during his presidency. He was a pioneer in election observation, monitoring at least 113 elections in Africa, Latin America, and Asia since 1989 through the Carter Center, which he opened with his wife, Rosalynn, in 1982.
Carter’s public health efforts included a recent announcement that only 14 human cases of Guinea worm disease were reported in all of 2021, resulting from years of public health campaigns to improve access to safe drinking water in Africa. His work has been widely recognized, with Craig Shirley, a Reagan biographer and historian, calling him “one of the best ex-presidents of the 20th century.”
According to Gallup’s “Most Admired Man list,” Carter is number three in the top 10 finishes, behind only Rev. Billy Graham and Ronald Reagan, making the list 29 times from 1946 to 2020. In a retrospective evaluation of his presidency, 57% of Americans approved of the job he did, while 36% disapproved, ranking his approval in the bottom half of presidents.
