Everything Is Tuberculosis - Well Not Everything, But More Than You Suspect

One man's journey into Effective Altruism. (Okay he never mentions that term, but it is in fact what he's doing.)

Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection

By: John Green

Published: 2025

208 Pages

Briefly, what is this book about?

The ubiquity of tuberculosis (wait, did I just restate the title?) especially outside of the US. And its prevalence despite the fact that a cure is available.

What's the author's angle?

Green was already interested in global health when he met Henry, a young man with tuberculosis (TB) in Sierra Leone, literally on the way out of the country. Green was so affected by Henry and his plight that it eventually led him to completely change his focus, and while I don’t want to minimize the vast harms caused by TB, it’s apparent that, for Green, it’s personal.

Who should read this book?

This is a good book to broaden your horizons. When you consider that (TB) kills over a million people per year. And when you consider that most Americans have only the most cursory knowledge about it (including, at the start, Green by his own admission) this book should be read just to fill out your knowledge of how the world really is. But also TB is terrible and it should receive more attention than it does.

Specific thoughts: Whatever else you may think TB should be getting more attention

This is a good and important book. Green’s a skillful writer and the book carries you along without burying you in minutiae. For most people the lack of minutiae is a good thing, for me it made the book feel lighter than it should have been for a subject of this heft. Nevertheless Green covered a lot, and he definitely did the subject justice.

There were a couple of things I disliked about the book. First off, tuberculosis is a big enough problem that I think you’d want to steer clear of overt culture war stuff—you want as broad an audience as possible. But at several points Green clearly telegraphs which side of things he’s on. Secondly, the pharmaceutical companies are one of the bad guys in the book, and I get why, but there is a reasonable case to be made for drug patents. Green does give vague nods to humanities collective failure, and “global incentive structures” but he still spends most of his time attacking greedy corporations.

On the other hand I think he does a great job of illustrating why TB is unlike other diseases. It’s slow moving, it can be cured, but it takes a long time and compliance to the treatment regime has to be high. Sometimes people are unable to comply and then drug resistant strains follow. In the end TB is more of a logistics problem than a medical one. We need to get the right drugs to the right places, and then people need to take them for six months. This is not very sexy, and so it doesn’t get nearly as much attention as it should, and Green should be commended for bringing more attention to it, and the good work he’s doing there. We should all aspire to do the same.

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In my family we have a joke. Whenever someone has a cold, we immediately ask “Is it TB?” First, I’m not 100% sure why we do it (though my wife did work in a TB lab in college). Second, after reading this book I’m not sure if we’re being overly flippant about something serious or if we’re bringing valuable awareness to the problem. I think it’s a little bit of both, which is also the balance I try to strike in this blog. If you like that combination please subscribe.