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Systemic

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What to expect

A ground-breaking investigation into how racism corrodes science and medicine – leading to worse treatment for everyone.

'A work of towering importance that will undoubtedly change science and save lives, but it will also change the way you see yourself and the people around you' Chris van Tulleken, author of Ultra-Processed People
‘Liverpool is a wonderful researcher and this shines through in her writing. Systemic provides a powerful examination on racism in healthcare’ Annabel Sowemimo, author of Divided

What can you do when science and medicine are as biased as the society they treat? Black and Asian patients in the UK wait nearly a week longer for a cancer diagnosis and globally, people of colour are not only more likely to die while giving birth, they are also more likely to die while being born – or soon afterwards.

In Systemic, science journalist Layal Liverpool unearths the shocking facts behind the health threat of racism, and when a scientific bias is this pronounced, it results in worse treatment for everyone. We are collectively more ill, medical research is held back and our potential for scientific discoveries is reduced.

But there is hope for a cure – practical solutions that we can implement to heal our world. Individuals can learn to advocate for themselves and others with scientifically backed data in the face of structural prejudice. Governments can enact policies aimed at tackling systemic inequities on a national level. Drawing on years of research, interviews and cutting-edge data from across the world, Systemic is a clarion call for a healthier world for us all.

'A groundbreaking, brilliantly argued book that debunks the myth that illness is the great equaliser' Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize winning-author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Song of the Cell

Critics Review

  • Layal Liverpool has produced a work of towering importance that will undoubtedly change science and save lives, but it will also change the way you see yourself and the people around you. Systemic is beautifully written and scholarly but perhaps almost uniquely for such a book it is deeply personal and accessible, packed with compelling stories and fascinating details which are harnessed to make an impassioned argument for a better world

    Chris van Tulleken, bestselling author of Ultra-Processed People

  • A groundbreaking, brilliantly argued book that debunks the myth that illness is the great equaliser. With a strong foundation in science and biology, Layal Liverpool unequivocally proves that addressing bias in medicine and data gaps in research will lead to a healthier and more equal world

    Siddhartha Mukherjee, bestselling author of The Emperor of All Maladies, The Gene and The Song of the Cell

  • Systemic: How Racism is Making Us Ill is a poignant and timely work that intimately captures the authentic narratives of individuals. Layal’s writing doesn’t shy away from acknowledging the pain of systemic racism in healthcare but, much like my own experience shared in the book, transforms adversity into a catalyst for positive change. As a survivor of Stevens-Johnson syndrome, I feel deeply honoured by Layal’s thoughtful approach, giving voice not only to my journey but also to the countless unspoken survivors and victims. May this transformative narrative pave the way for lasting change

    Kanayo Dike-Oduah

  • Across a global canvas Layal Liverpool deploys deep compassion, gut-wrenching testimony and peerless scientific journalism to show how racism lives and kills. But then she guides us to a revelation: once we know the truth of racism, it’s possible to chart a way to a health system in which anti-racism is medicine. It’s a prescription that everyone needs

    Raj Patel, co-author of Inflamed

  • Scientifically and technically masterful but never lacking heart, Liverpool draws upon her own lived experiences with vulnerability and grace, so that readers may better understand their own

    Steven W. Thrasher, author of THE VIRAL UNDERCLASS

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