A Doc Was Mad That People Die From Preventable Diseases. So He Wrote A Book About It

Dr. Eugene Richardson has spent most of his adult life working as a physician and an anthropologist in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Peru, South Africa and Sudan.

No matter where he went, he was perplexed by this public health conundrum:

"The world has the resources to prevent all these senseless, tragic deaths, but we don't do it," says Richardson. "There are still famines. There are still people dying of measles and HIV and diphtheria. Why?"

That's what Richardson explores in his new book, Epidemic Illusions: On the Coloniality of Global Public Health, published by MIT Press.