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We’ve Solved Many Medical Mysteries. Where Are the Cures? | Saloni Dattani | TED

Science communicator Saloni Dattani traces the quiet revolution of medical innovation that has slashed death rates from conditions like heart disease and malaria — and reveals the broken incentives that have delayed other lifesaving treatments for decades. “Diseases are not a fact of life,” she says. “They’re problems that we can solve.” (Recorded at TED2026…

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Science communicator Saloni Dattani traces the quiet revolution of medical innovation that has slashed death rates from conditions like heart disease and malaria — and reveals the broken incentives that have delayed other lifesaving treatments for decades. “Diseases are not a fact of life,” she says. “They’re problems that we can solve.” (Recorded at TED2026 on April 14, 2026)

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23 Comments

  1. @DIYBiotech

    August 31, 2026 at 11:04 am

    first

  2. @sassygirl7462

    August 31, 2026 at 11:09 am

    The cures are being repressed by big Pharma. Period.

    • @doubleuenbeeeh

      August 31, 2026 at 11:34 am

      Mom must be so proud

    • @amzarnacht6710

      August 31, 2026 at 5:26 pm

      @doubleuenbeeeh When’s the last time you saw a top-5%-er with diabetes?

  3. @DavidWebb-v5t

    August 31, 2026 at 11:15 am

    God bless you all for the truth and laws we fight for in our country Amen 🙏 Amen
    Vote Blue America 💙

  4. @doubleuenbeeeh

    August 31, 2026 at 11:34 am

    Melissa Villaseñor cosplayer?

  5. @richard5830

    August 31, 2026 at 11:35 am

    There are cures for most if not all diseases, except for greed.

    • @ansel_ale

      August 31, 2026 at 11:50 am

      The French would beg to differ

    • @richard5830

      August 31, 2026 at 12:58 pm

      @ansel_alethe French pharmaceutical industry is not greedy? That’s hard to believe.

    • @FenrirShadow

      August 31, 2026 at 1:30 pm

      @richard5830 No, I think it was a reference of the France revolution where they killed all the nobility: that’s the resolution implied :’)

    • @richard5830

      August 31, 2026 at 2:40 pm

      @Fen@FenrirShadow wouldn’t make sense to compare the French Revolution in this context. The reply was more likely based on a reference to the traditionalist French culture.

    • @mukulbhatta2896

      August 31, 2026 at 3:11 pm

      There are certainly drugs already that fixes anxiety and some can even prevent wars by reducing narcissism and disgust in leaders. There is probably even a drug that makes you less greedy too. But they still won’t take it or fund it because they’re intrinsically evil and want the world to be in constant conflict rather than resolution. “Pure Evil” always fascinates me

  6. @KidZoneBharat

    August 31, 2026 at 11:52 am

    Om Namah shivaya

  7. @LuisOtten-q8w

    August 31, 2026 at 11:56 am

    Unless an emergency, no medicine is best. Good nutrition is the best medicine, no side effects.

  8. @pradipwaghela4045

    August 31, 2026 at 12:21 pm

    Greate knowledge
    It feels like her accent is different from the video, like she is trying to imitate this accent.

  9. @JonathanJollimore-w9v

    August 31, 2026 at 12:52 pm

    Whatever fine I hate you all wasting my time there nothing left for me

  10. @emb647

    August 31, 2026 at 2:11 pm

    soo…. umm…. Capitalism? Are we ever going to get to having THAT talk?

    Were literally burning the earth to death in a cloud of carbon dioxide and we have the mechanisms and the choice to NOT do that… but here we are.

  11. @nokoolaid

    August 31, 2026 at 2:35 pm

    Job security. I retired from an R-1 university, and I remember one researcher who was trying to get a grant for alzheimer’s research saying if he got it, that would be 20 years of job security. The problem is we don’t coordinate all the research on a particular problem with specific goals in mind. We have islands of research that serve themselves and are competitive with others instead of working together. The Chinese get it, and it’s why they are starting to pull ahead in many areas.

  12. @StrictlyPerformative

    August 31, 2026 at 4:06 pm

    To facilitate scientific and medical progress, you need to cast your vote elsewhere first and foremost.

  13. @dlanska

    August 31, 2026 at 7:25 pm

    Very well expressed. Well done.

  14. @Z7d3nR4

    September 1, 2026 at 11:09 am

    There is far more big money to be made by prolonging the problem.

  15. @Ash__7

    September 1, 2026 at 1:51 pm

    great talk

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