Epidemic Illusions, On the Coloniality of Global Public Health

A physician-anthropologist explores how public health practicesfrom epidemiological modeling to outbreak containmenthelp perpetuate global inequities.In Epidemic Illusions, Eugene Richardson, a physician and an anthropologist, contends that public health practicesfrom epidemiological modeling and outbreak containment to Big Data and causal inferenceplay an essential role in perpetuating a range of global inequities. Drawing on postcolonial theory, medical anthropology, and critical science studies, Richardson demonstrates the ways in which the flagship discipline of epidemiology has been shaped by the colonial, racist, and patriarchal system that had its inception in 1492.