Malignant Neglect: The Failure to Address the Need to Prevent Premature Non-communicable Disease Morbidity and Mortality

Watching a slow-motion disaster unfold is a vexing public-health challenge. It is particularly frustrating when policymakers, aware of the problem, fail to respond. The histories of climate change, HIV, and famine are prominent examples of such malignant neglect—that is, “doing harm by doing nothing.”

The global burden of non-communicable disease (NCD) would, on first brush, not seem to