Paul Hermann Müller won the Nobel Prize in 1948 for “his discovery of the high efficiency of DDT as a contact poison against several arthropods.” For two and a half years in the early 1980's, my late wife Lisa (pictured above) rode a motorcycle around the Golden Triangle in Thailand, spraying swamps with DDT and giving out Malaria pills to villagers. However, DDT has since been banned by what Factfulness author calls "Chemophobia." Even the WHO seems to recognize the mistake:
... Today, the World Health Organization promotes the use of DDT to save lives in poor settings by killing malaria mosquitoes, within strict safety guidelines...
The Factfulness book (I listened to it on Audible) also dispels various myths about "us vs. them," "developing vs. developed world," or the myth that things are getting worse. Highly recommended for anyone interested in poverty.
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