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Inequality Kills Us All: Book Talk by Dr. Stephen Bezruchka

  • WPSR Offices (in El Centro de la Raza) 2524 16th Avenue South Suite 300 Seattle, WA, 98144 United States (map)

Register here!
https://secure.everyaction.com/EfIlg4nqJ0aZCjwXs_yVKg2 

WPSR Board Member Dr. Stephen Bezruchka’s new book, Inequality Kills Us All details what produces health in a population and prescribes the required “medicine” to prevent our being dead first among rich nations. The causes of our poor health are political, so the remedies must also be political. The public remains unaware that all the other rich nations–and quite a number of poor ones–have better health outcomes than we do. Why? Economic inequality kills, and early life lasts a lifetime. Income and wealth inequality is akin to an odorless, colorless, highly toxic gas that kills us from the usual causes—heart disease, cancers, and now COVID-19.

Join us to hear Dr. Bezruchka speak about his book and his compelling research on the relationship between inequality and health, one of the core issues that WPSR works on each and every day. We invite to join us and to bring a colleague or friend to introduce them to our organization and work, and share the opportunity to engage with our health advocacy work that needs new voices now more than ever.  

ABOUT THE BOOK
In his new book, INEQUALITY KILLS US ALL, Bezruchka argues that economic inequality is the most powerful and overlooked cause of poor health in the U.S. and elsewhere. Major political and economic change is the cure. Bezruchka takes a deep dive into the global health data and considers his years of experience as an emergency physician and a public health educator to expose how unjust economics adds up to poor health.

The U.S. leads the world in reported COVID-19 deaths. Reasons include our distrust of government, concerns about civil liberties, together with the lack of caring for, or sharing with, one another. Bezruchka shows how COVID-19 laid bare inequality in the U.S. and urges us to use this reckoning as an opportunity to make systemic change.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephen Bezruchka, M.D., M.P.H. is Associate Teaching Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Health Systems & Population Health and of Global Health at the School of Public Health, University of Washington. At UW he received the 2002 Outstanding Teacher Award, the 2008 Faculty Community Service Award, the 2017 Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award, and the 2018 Communicating Public Health to the Public Award.

He serves on the board of the Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, whose parent organization has shared two Nobel Peace Prizes. There he developed the Economic Inequity Health Task Force. He launched the Population Health Forum in 1998, which presents many of the ideas in this book. His previous books include The Pocket Doctor: A Passport to Healthy Travel; A Guide to Trekking in Nepal, with the 8th edition appearing in 2011; Nepali for Trekkers; and Altitude Illness: Prevention & Treatment.

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