The Cure for Everything: The Epic Struggle for Public Health and a Radical Vision for Human Thriving

Epidemiologist Williams debuts with an expansive history of public health, demonstrating how politics has subverted efforts to improve the lives of individuals and communities. She shows how the discovery of microbes responsible for diseases launched a “golden age in public health” in the early 20th century, sparking clean water and vaccination initiatives that increased life expectancy. But as germs became the primary focus of public health policy, social issues, like a lack of access to health care, were ignored. She chronicles the creation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and cites instances of public health measures being shut down by outside forces, such as how efforts in the 1990s to study gun violence were derailed by a law banning the use of federal funding to conduct research that would promote gun control. Williams explains how public health, if practiced appropriately, can help with issues as wide ranging as gun violence, domestic abuse, environmental racism, and unsafe working conditions. Throughout, she makes numerous critical points, including that “zip codes are more important than genetic codes as a predictor of health and longevity” and “knowledge by itself doesn’t save lives. It’s the social and political will to use the science to make changes happen that saves lives.” The result is an urgent, inspiring vision of what public health can be. (Feb.)