Kolokotrones University Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard University
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Paul Farmer, epidemiologist, anthropologist, architect of health systems designed to deliver high-quality care to poor people, and member of IFK’s advisory board, passed away February 21, 2022. He founded Partners In Health in 1987 to bring the results of scientific and medical knowledge to people who had long been denied them, and to open pathways for citizens of impoverished countries to join the medical professions. In what may have been his last published piece of writing, Dr. Farmer affirmed, characteristically, that “racism kills, and not only with bullets: Denial of essential goods and services can also kill. And because we tend to patients of every description, we know that racism ruins our ability to provide excellent care for all, just as its corrosive effects damage our professional communities from within.” IFK mourns an inspiring colleague and friend.
Contributed by Haun Saussy, University Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, the Committee on Social Thought, and the College.
Partner to the Poor A Paul Farmer Reader is available gratis from University of California Press here: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520257139/partner-to-the-poor.