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vorst inequity in global health. 7 And this that COVID did not happen in a vacuum. Far from being the only inequity in global health, COVID wasn't even the worst inequity in global health. Consider that, as of November 2021, COVID had caused some 19 million excess deaths--that's counting people who died of the disease itself, plus those who died from its ripple effects, for example tuberculosis patients who couldn't get treatment because their local health system was overwhelmed by the pandemic. It is impossible not to be horrified by this number. But compare it with the deaths in developing countries over the past decade*: 24 million women and babies died before, during, or shortly after childbirth. Intestinal diseases killed 19 million people. HIV killed nearly 11 million people, and malaria more than 7 million, most of them children and pregnant women.7 And this is just in the past ten years--these diseases have been killing people for far longer than that, and they won't end when the pandemic does. They happen year after year, and unlike COVID, stopping them is not at the top of the world's agenda. <~?~Insert art 035_Gate_9780593534489_art_r1> Preventable deaths. In 2019, there was a significant gap in health disparities between countries in sub-Saharan Africa and high-income North America. (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation) The vast majority of people who die from these conditions live in low- and middleincome countries. Where you live and how much money you have determines--to a great extent--your chance of dying young or growing up to become a thriving adult. * From 2010 to 2019, the most recent year for which data is available as this book goes to press.