Sign-In
Cart
Pandemics, Poverty, and Politics: Decoding the Social and Political Drivers of Pandemics from Plague to Covid-19
Paperback
Medical ReferencePublic HealthSocial Movements
ISBN13: 9781421451787
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: Aug 5 2025
Pages: 496
Weight: 1.80
Height: 1.30 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
A compelling exploration of how socio-political factors like inequality and poverty exacerbate pandemics.
In a world where millions perish from preventable diseases amid unprecedented wealth and technological advancement, Pandemics, Poverty, and Politics illuminates a central paradox of our times. This compelling work by a seasoned physician and global health leader unravels the complex web of social, political, and economic factors driving pandemics and other public health crises.
Drawing from over two decades of experience in the public health field, Tyler B. Evans, MD, MS, MPH, presents a unique and deeply personal narrative. The book begins with a foundational introduction to social medicine and health systems, as well as the social and political determinants of health. Dr. Evans provides readers with examples of every major pandemic starting with the turn of the twentieth century to current times--beginning with the third plague and ending with COVID-19--highlighting the common social and political drivers of these outbreaks. Fractured health systems worsened by social disruption place inordinate stress on societies and disproportionately impact the most vulnerable. These historic examples of pandemics in addition to more contemporary examples of ongoing epidemics and major public health concerns ranging from malaria and neglected tropical diseases to influenza, HIV/AIDS, diarrheal diseases, Ebola, and tuberculosis reinforce how sociopolitical factors build upon each other. Case in point: high population stress following political repression and unrest in apartheid South Africa contributed to a major outbreak of HIV in the 1990s, as did multinational diamond mining and minimal infrastructure help precipitate the worst ebola outbreak in history in Sierra Leone.
While scientific advancements have progressed, the failure to address underlying social inequities leaves us vulnerable to even more devastating health crises. This book is an essential read for public health and health care professionals, policymakers, social science researchers, students, and anyone committed to understanding and mitigating the complex factors that underpin global health emergencies.
Also in
Public Health
The Great Shadow: A History of How Sickness Shapes What We Do, Think, Believe, and Buy
Bauer, Susan Wise
Hardcover
A Pox on Fools: The True Believers, Grifters, and Cynics Who Convinced Us to Reject Vaccines
Levenson, Thomas
Hardcover
Forbidden Facts: Government Deceit & Suppression about Brain Damage from Childhood Vaccines
de Becker, Gavin
Hardcover
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures
Fadiman, Anne
Paperback
Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection (Large Print Edition)
Green, John
Paperback
The Cure for Everything: The Epic Struggle for Public Health and a Radical Vision for Human Thriving
Williams, Michelle A.
Hardcover
Todo Es Tuberculosis. La Historia de la Infección Más Mortal de la Humanidad / Everything Is Tuberculosis
Green, John
Paperback
VAX Facts: What to Consider Before Vaccinating at All Ages & Stages of Life
Thomas, Paul
Hoover, Deedee
Paperback
The Formula for Better Health: How to Save Millions of Lives--Including Your Own
Frieden, Tom
Hardcover
The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, The Epidemic That Shaped Our History
Crosby, Molly Caldwell
Paperback
The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health
Kennedy, Robert F., Jr.
Hardcover
Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland
Metzl, Jonathan M.
Paperback
The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide
Thrasher, Steven W.
Paperback
Kinship Medicine: Cultivating Interdependence to Heal the Earth and Ourselves
Johnson, Wendy, MD MPH
Paperback
Fair Doses: An Insider's Story of the Pandemic and the Global Fight for Vaccine Equity
Berkley, Seth
Hardcover
The Contagion Myth: Why Viruses (Including Coronavirus) Are Not the Cause of Disease
Fallon Morell, Sally
Cowan, Thomas S.
Hardcover
Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines, and the Forgotten History 10th Anniversary Edition
Bystrianyk, Roman
Humphries, Suzanne
Paperback
Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society
Geronimus, Arline T.
Paperback
The Code as Witness: How the Covid Genome Reveals Its Lab Origins and How to Prevent Future Outbreaks
Quay, Steven Carl
Hardcover
The Art and Science of Connection: Why Social Health Is the Missing Key to Living Longer, Healthier, and Happier
Killam, Kasley
Paperback
The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem
Gutmann, Ethan
Hardcover
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World
Kidder, Tracy
Paperback
Diary of a Psychosis: How Public Health Disgraced Itself During COVID Mania
Woods, Thomas E., Jr.
Hardcover
Redfield's Warning: What I Learned (But Couldn't Tell You) Might Save Your Life
Redfield, Robert R.
Hardcover
The Pfizer Papers: Pfizer's Crimes Against Humanity
The Warroom/Dailyclout Pfizer Documents Analysts
Hardcover
El Gran Libro de Lucía, Mi Pediatra (Edición 5° Aniversario) / The Big Book of Lucía, My Pediatrician (5th Anniversary Edition)
Galán Bertrand, Lucía
Paperback
The Resilience Myth: New Thinking on Grit, Strength, and Growth After Trauma
Chemaly, Soraya
Paperback
Information Sick: How Journalism's Decline and Misinformation's Rise Are Harming Our Health--And What We Can Do about It
Kenen, Joanne
Sharfstein, Joshua M.
Morales, Lymari
Paperback
The Surgeon's Battle: How Medicine Won the Vicksburg Campaign and Changed the Civil War
Privette, Lindsay Rae Smith
Paperback
Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight Against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic
Eyre, Eric
Paperback
Undoing Drugs: How Harm Reduction Is Changing the Future of Drugs and Addiction
Szalavitz, Maia
Paperback
The Omnivore's Deception: What We Get Wrong about Meat, Animals, and Ourselves
Sanbonmatsu, John
Hardcover
Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines, and the Forgotten History 10th Anniversary Edition Companion and Reference
Bystrianyk, Roman
Humphries, Suzanne
Paperback
The Fight for Sex Ed: The Century-Long Battle Between Truth and Doctrine
Myers, Margaret Grace
Hardcover
Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic
Westhoff, Ben
Paperback
Toxic Legacy: How the Weedkiller Glyphosate Is Destroying Our Health and the Environment
Seneff, Stephanie
Paperback
The Hpv Vaccine on Trial: Seeking Justice for a Generation Betrayed
Holland, Mary
Rosenberg, Kim Mack
Iorio, Eileen
Paperback
Controlling Contagion: Epidemics and Institutions from the Black Death to Covid
Ogilvie, Sheilagh
Hardcover
Sicker, Fatter, Poorer: The Urgent Threat of Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals to Our Health and Future . . . and What We Can Do about It
Trasande, Leonardo
Paperback
Fighting for New York: Activism for Health and Social Justice Since the 1960s
Freudenberg, Nicholas
Paperback
Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls
Hale, Kathleen
Paperback
The Elephant in the Room: How to Stop Making Ourselves and Other Animals Sick
Kalaugher, Liz
Hardcover
So Very Small: How Humans Discovered the Microcosmos, Defeated Germs--And May Still Lose the War Against Infectious Disease
Levenson, Thomas
Hardcover
Mother of Methadone: A Doctor's Quest, a Forgotten History, and a Modern-Day Crisis
Glenn, Melody
Hardcover
The End of Violence: Eliminating the World's Most Dangerous Epidemic (Large Print Edition)
Slutkin, Gary
Paperback
Booster Shots: The Urgent Lessons of Measles and the Uncertain Future of Children's Health
Ratner, Adam
Hardcover
The Autumn Ghost: How the Battle Against a Polio Epidemic Revolutionized Modern Medical Care
Wunsch, Hannah
Paperback
Ending Parkinson's Disease: A Prescription for Action
Sherer, Todd
Okun, Michael S.
Dorsey, Ray
Paperback
Unavoidably Unsafe for Adults: A Physician's Guide to Vaccine Safety, Effectiveness, and Your Right to Choose
Barke, Jeffrey
Geehr, Edward
Hardcover
Exposed: A Pfizer Scientist Battles Corruption, Lies, and Betrayal, and Becomes a Biohazard Whistleblower
McClain, Becky
Hardcover
We Are Electric: Inside the 200-Year Hunt for Our Body's Bioelectric Code, and What the Future Holds
Adee, Sally
Paperback
Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America
Otto, Mary
Paperback
Crisis in the Red Zone: The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Viruses to Come
Preston, Richard
Paperback
Preguntas Que No Te Dejan Dormir. La Ciencia Explicada Para Mentes Curiosas / Questions That Keep You Awake
Bartra, Aldo
Paperback
Maintenance Phase: The Hidden History of the Weight Loss and Wellness Industries--And the Lies They Sold Us
Gordon, Aubrey
Hardcover
Valley So Low: One Lawyer's Fight for Justice in the Wake of America's Great Coal Catastrophe
Sullivan, Jared
Hardcover
The Art and Science of Connection: Why Social Health Is the Missing Key to Living Longer, Healthier, and Happier
Killam, Kasley
Hardcover
Getting Better: The Policy and Politics of Reducing Health Inequalities
Lynch, Julia
E. Smith, Katherine
Bambra, Clare
Paperback
Vaccines and the Diseases They Target: An Analysis of Vaccine Safety and Epidemiology
Physicians for Informed Consent
Hardcover
Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight-Loss Drugs
Hari, Johann
Hardcover
Disabled Power: A Storm, a Grid, and Embodied Harm in the Age of Disaster
Frederick, Angela
Paperback
The Truth about Contagion: Exploring Theories of How Disease Spreads
Fallon Morell, Sally
Cowan, Thomas S.
Hardcover
The Ultimate Vaccine Timeline: A Fact-Packed History of Vaccines and Their Makers
Khan, Shaz
Hardcover
Death by Design: Producing Racial Health Inequality in the Shadow of the Capitol
Mojola, Sanyu A.
Paperback
How Neighborhoods Make Us Sick: Restoring Health and Wellness to Our Communities
Lathrop, Breanna
Squires, Veronica
Paperback
Arming the Immune System: The Incredible Power of Natural Immunity & the Fever Response
Parmar, Gurdev
Paperback
Sons, Daughters, and Sidewalk Psychotics: Mental Illness and Homelessness in Los Angeles
Gong, Neil
Paperback
Grounds for Exclusion: Race, Health, and Disability in Argentine Immigration Policy, 1876-1932
Bryce, Benjamin
Paperback
The Autumn Ghost: How the Battle Against a Polio Epidemic Revolutionized Modern Medical Care
Wunsch, Hannah
Hardcover
Let's Be Critical Thinkers: Critically Thinking about Masks, Lockdowns, Social Distancing & Vaccines
Kroner, Shannon
Hardcover
Muzzled Truth: How The California Dept. of Public Health Rejected COVID-19 Treatment and Vaccine Health Risks Warnings
Owens, Ronald F., Jr.
Paperback
Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism: My Journey as a Vaccine Scientist, Pediatrician, and Autism Dad
Hotez, Peter J.
Paperback
Demographic Anxieties: Bodies, Borders, and Reproductive Injustice in Palestine/Israel Volume 17
Rexer, Gala
Paperback
The Peanut Allergy Epidemic, Third Edition: What's Causing It and How to Stop It
Fraser, Heather
Paperback
Is This Wi-Fi Organic?: A Guide to Spotting Misleading Science Online (Science Myths Debunked)
Farina, Dave
Paperback
Building the Worlds That Kill Us: Disease, Death, and Inequality in American History
Rosner, David
Markowitz, Gerald
Paperback