Gestor bibliográfico Crisis y Salud

World leaders currently making tough economic decisions should be guided by the physicians' mantra: “First, do no harm”. Austerity programmes, even if justifiable in terms of promoting growth (itself highly questionable), may exacerbate the health risks posed by financial crises. Inflicting short-term pain constitutes a massive, uncontrolled experiment with people's lives. Recessions themselves pose a risk to health, but empirical data reveal that the decisions made by governments crucially determine how bad the outcome will be. To mitigate the effects of the Great Depression in the 1930s, US policy-makers created a social-welfare system and invested in public-health programmes. Mortality rates fell by about 10%, mainly owing to a decrease in infectious diseases and road-traffic accidents.