The Tyee has published my article 'Why Austerity Kills', a review of The Body Economic. Excerpt:
In Greece, the cuts led to a 52 per cent jump in new HIV cases -- between January and May 2011. The government, which had cut HIV prevention programs, was profoundly embarrassed. It promptly blamed prostitutes.
By then, foreclosures had raised homelessness by 25 per cent in two years, and homicides doubled between 2010 and 2011. Like Russian working-age men in the 1990s, Greek men showed signs of worsening mental health, including suicides and deaths from "undetermined injuries."
Cuts to hospital budgets led to shortages of antibiotics and tripled wait times. People couldn't afford private hospitals, so public hospitals admitted 25 per cent more patients: "Then, instead of boosting support to meet the new demand, the government's austerity budget cut the jobs of 35,000 clinicians, doctors, and public health workers."
HIV was only one of the infectious diseases making a comeback. West Nile virus and malaria spread as spraying programs were cut and mosquitoes prospered. (West Nile also exploded in Bakersfield, California -- as mosquitoes bred in the stagnant swimming pools of foreclosed homes.)
Breaking rules, saving lives
Meanwhile, Iceland refused to play by the rules. Having hosted an offshore-banking industry that imploded, the country experienced some noisy demonstrations that forced the government to hold a referendum: Should Icelanders pay to honour the debts of their bankers, or not?
The answer was no, much to the alarm of the EU. But the Icelanders toughed out the recession without sacrificing too many jobs or social support programs. Stuckler and Basu followed the Icelandic health records: death rates kept falling, and heart-attack rates were unchanged. So were rates of depression. People were working and earning less, but self-reported as feeling pretty good.
