This Is Hell! US Sanctions Kill as Many People as Wars / Mark Weisbrot & Francisco Rodriguez
Aug 13, 2025
Mark Weisbrot, Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and Francisco Rodriguez, a senior research fellow and professor at the University of Denver, delve into the lethal consequences of U.S. economic sanctions. They reveal that sanctions can result in as many deaths as wars, particularly affecting vulnerable populations like children and the sick. Their discussion critiques the hypocrisy of the U.S. foreign policy, advocating for a re-examination of how sanctions are employed and the humanitarian crises they create. With insights from their impactful research, the conversation underscores the urgent need for change.
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Sanctions Cause Large, Measurable Mortality
- Broad unilateral sanctions cause large increases in mortality, particularly among children under five.
- The authors estimate about 564,000 excess deaths per year attributable to sanctions using causal econometric methods.
Child Patient Lost After Drug Shipments Stopped
- Francisco recounts the case of Amir Hossein Noroi, an Iranian child with thalassemia who died after Novartis stopped shipments after US sanctions.
- The example shows how corporate and bank risk aversion can block essential medicines despite formal humanitarian exemptions.
How Sanctions Kill: Finance To Health
- Sanctions work by cutting off finance, exports and imports, producing economic collapse and health system failure.
- The paper uses econometric causal methods to show sanctions lead to higher age-specific mortality, not mere correlation.
