Epidemic Illusions : On the Coloniality of Global Public Health

A physician-anthropologist explores how public health practices–from epidemiological modeling to outbreak containment–help perpetuate global inequities.

In Epidemic Illusions, Eugene Richardson, a physician and an anthropologist, contends that public health practices–from epidemiological modeling and outbreak containment to Big Data and causal inference–play 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.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exploited stark global inequities. But those inequities have long histories, histories that the medical community has barely acknowledged, let alone addressed. Eugene Richardson shines light on one of the darkest corners of global health. In doing so, he provides a radical manifesto for revolutionary change.”—Richard Horton, Editor of The Lancet and author of The COVID-19 Catastrophe

“An impressive deconstruction of global health’s colonial roots. This fine book is as sophisticated in social theory and history as it is in infectious diseases and medicine. The author doesn’t just talk the talk of anthropology, public health, and clinical medicine; he walks the walk, and is as much at home as an ethnographer in West African Ebola settings as in the seminar room discussing postmodern theory, African history and the imperial background of global health institutions. A telling contribution!”—Arthur Kleinman, author of The Soul of Care


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