Richard Garfield is a public health

Public health

Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...

 and nursing

Nursing

Nursing is a healthcare profession focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life from conception to death....

 professor at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

. Garfield worked with Ministries of Health in several countries and in malaria control before coming to Columbia University, where he studied the effects of the economic sanctions on health conditions in Iraq, Cuba, Nicaragua, Liberia, Haiti, and the former Yugoslavia. he is best known for estimates of mortality changes related to conflict. On Iraq, Gulf War

Gulf War

The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...

 and UN sanctions against Iraq. Journalist Matt Welch

Matt Welch

Matt Welch is an American blogger, journalist, andlibertarian political pundit. Since 2008, he has been the editor-in-chief at the monthly libertarian journal, Reason. From 2006 to 2007, he was an editorial page editor for the Los Angeles Times...

 praised Garfield's work on this controversial subject:

Those who get past the initial frustrations of researching [ Iraq sanctions

Iraq sanctions

The Iraq sanctions were a near-total financial and trade embargo imposed by the United Nations Security Council on the nation of Iraq. They began August 6, 1990, four days after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, stayed largely in force until May 2003 , and certain portions including reparations to Kuwait...

] usually end up on Richard Garfield's doorstep. His 1999 report ... picked apart the faulty methodologies of his predecessors, criticized the bogus claims of the anti-sanctions left, admitted when the data were shaky, and generally used conservative numbers. Among his many interesting findings was that every sanctions regime except the one imposed on apartheid South Africa led to limitations of food and medicine imports, even though such goods were almost always officially exempt from the embargo. "In many countries," he wrote, "the embargo-related lack of capital was more important than direct restrictions on importing medicine or food."

Welch reported his updated conclusion:

Between August, 1991, and March, 1998, there were between 106,000 and 227,000 excess deaths of children under five. Recently, he has estimated the latter, less conservative number at 500,000 plus between 1990 and 2002. The chief causes? "Contaminated water, lack of high-quality foods, inadequate breast-feeding, poor weaning practices and inadequate supplies in the curative health care system. This was the product of both a lack of some essential goods, and inadequate or inefficient use of existing essential goods."
And, of course, sanctions. "Even a small number of documentable excess deaths is an expression of a humanitarian disaster, and this number is not small," he concluded.
Garfield believes that during the last few years of oil-for-food, most of the blame for poor child mortality figures can be laid on the government of Iraq.

Garfield led the Health and Nutrition Tracking Service at the World Health Organization in its first years, continues to consult with WHO on non-communicable diseases, and is coordinating the Collective Violence risk group of the current Global Burden of Disease program.