What we did was meaningful. I was drawn to start this publication because it presented an opportunity to break out of the typical crisis-driven flow and ebb of journalism about the field. Harvard wasn’t a publisher, but it was in the business of sharing knowledge, and I thought we could do for public health what Harvard Business Review does for business. I believed there was no public health without the public, and while it took some feints and half-steps to figure out what that meant for our journalism, we eventually settled on assessing every story idea with a simple question: “What would this story change?” Implicit was a corollary question: “And for whom?”

In the meantime, we relaunched the magazine as a digital publication, built out a social media presence, and launched a weekly newsletter. We co-sponsored a well-attended structural racism symposium and special issue, a series on public health data, a Public Health in Action collaboration with The Studio at the Harvard T.H. Chan School, and an event on artificial intelligence with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg’s Global Health Now. We had momentum—visitors to the site almost tripled in last year’s fourth quarter versus the prior year. Almost 15,000 people signed up for Harvard Public Health Weekly, close to 90 percent of them not connected to Harvard.

Readers ate up pieces on processed foods, the health effects of alcohol, and mental health. You also read our beautifully written and photographed narratives like the 10^th anniversary of the Flint water crisis or our look at Christian Happi’s bold aims for African science, and public health’s role in the recent Puerto Rican elections.

Our goal was to publish stories that would help improve health outcomes. That’s hard to measure in three-and-a-half years. But over 40 percent of you opened the newsletter in a typical week. In the last year, readers shared our articles more than 2 million times on social media. We’ve had at least 25 stories republished on other sites and 40 mentions in newsletters. Our stories have been cited in other publications and used in classrooms.

Public health outcomes change slowly, so it’s harder to measure real-world impact. I would love to hear from you about trying an idea you read about in HPH, or even if you just shared the idea with a colleague. Did you use an article from HPH in a class or a meeting? It would be great to hear from you at our inbox, magazine@hsph.harvard.edu. It will be live for a few more months. So will the site, and I encourage you to download articles you found useful.

The pandemic sparked a surge of public health journalism. These are the sites and newsletters I follow closely or scan regularly, and recommend to you:

• Axios Vitals
• Devex CheckUp
• The Examination
• Global Health NOW
• The Harvard Chan Studio
• KFF Health News
• MindSite News
• Public Health Watch
• The Healthiest Goldfish
• Your Local Epidemiologist
• ProPublica
• STAT Morning Rounds
• TradeOffs (podcast)

Also, the new Healthbeat is off to a promising start, focusing for now on Atlanta and New York City.

I have had a long and varied journalism career, much of it spent chronicling the vast impact of high technology. I have never done more meaningful and important work than what we were doing at Harvard Public Health. I am so thankful to the school, colleagues past and present and our fabulous advisory board, everyone who gave me informal counsel, and all the readers who reached out. I rue that we won’t be able to continue. But a wonderful thing about public health is its focus on the public. It is political with a small ‘p,’ rooted in communities.

What’s most important is that you in the public health community (and in the public) stay engaged in doing the good work you do. Keep telling your stories!

Onward,
Michael F. Fitzgerald

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A National Weather Service for disease?

Many U.S. hospitals struggled to predict demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to serious financial consequences. Policy experts blamed the CDC’s ad hoc approach, lambasted by Foreign Affairs as “an arbitrary assortment of academics” making snap decisions. The CDC is determined not to make that mistake again—and that’s where Insight Net comes in. It’s a nationwide network linking academic disease modelers with public health practitioners.

What’s working in the countries on track to help end AIDS

Nearly 20 countries have either met or are on track to meet an ambitious set of goals meant to help end AIDS by 2030. Despite challenges like stigma and barriers to access, successes in Botswana, Cambodia, Malawi, and Zambia could provide a roadmap for the rest of the world.

Battling period poverty in Kenya

Kenyan Senator Gloria Orwoba’s fight against period poverty in Kenya helped triple the country’s budget for sanitary pads in schools and prisons, but her plans to destigmatize menstruation didn’t end there. She also oversaw the creation of a “bank” for pad donations—and she has big plans for Africa’s first “menstruation museum.”

To meet demand, blood donation should not rely solely on volunteers

Blood shortages in low-income countries lead to preventable deaths. Incentivizing blood donations is one way to increase the supply, but it’s controversial. Jlateh Vincent Jappah and Ruoying Tao are studying which incentives are the most effective. They argue the demand is too great to eschew any opportunity to increase donations.

Snapshot: Conserving reefs for nutrition

Marine protected areas in the oceans conserve coral reefs, which are home to diverse and robust fisheries that feed thousands of coastal communities around the world. The reefs have also been damaged by pollution, overfishing, and climate change.

What we’re reading this week

Who gets obesity drugs covered by insurance? In North Carolina, it helps if you’re on Medicaid. →
KFF Health News

How to take climate change out of the culture wars →
Grist

Many long COVID patients adjust to slim recovery odds →
Reuters

In ‘Radical Endurance,’ author Andrea Gilats looks clear-eyed at the mental health impact of aging →
MinnPost

Crafting a sustainable, African-led HIV response →
Devex

People in the U.S. experience period poverty, too. Read Allison Torres Burtka’s feature story from last year to learn more.

See you next week, dear readers!

—Jo Zhou

The post HPH Weekly: A National Weather Service for disease? appeared first on Harvard Public Health Magazine.

“People forget about the fathers.”

Losing a child is one of the most painful events an adult can endure, experts say. For fathers, that grief is compounded by patriarchal expectations to bury or mask  their feelings. That’s why groups like the Sad Dads Club are so important: They give men a much-needed space to be vulnerable, allowing healing to begin.

Is bereavement a public health crisis in the U.S.? This advocate thinks so.

Joyal Mulheron believes bereavement is “an invisible public health crisis.” She and her nonprofit Evermore are on a mission to get federal action on the issue. Key to her view of healing in the wake of loss: Americans need less technology, more face-to-face time.

To break cycles of trauma, we need family-friendly addiction treatment

Children who have at least one parent with opioid use disorder “are at increased risk for developmental disorders, behavioral issues, poor parental attachment, abuse and neglect, and substance use disorders,” writes Nisha Chandra. The fact that their parents are often forced to choose between treatment and child care doesn’t make things any easier, she argues.

Adding mental health workers to emergency response reduces violence

Jina Moore Ngarambe, HPH managing editor, talks to Tradeoffs podcast reporter Ryan Levi about his three-part series, “The Fifth Branch.” The series explores efforts to add mental health professionals to the 911 response in Durham, North Carolina, reducing both unnecessary force and police time spent on  noncriminal activity.

Could the media stop avoiding public health, please?

With the election in the rearview mirror, Dick Tofel implores his fellow journalists to turn their attention to public health—and specifically, the lack of change in the field since the pandemic. We’re woefully unprepared for the next crisis, Tofel argues, and the media’s “news avoidance” is not helping.

Snapshot: Improving public health messaging on heat stroke

Nearly 19,000 people around the world die from excessive heat every year while they are on the job. Exertional heat stroke—different from classic heat stroke—is a pressing public health issue, especially as climate change increases the frequency and intensity of heat waves.

What we’re reading this week

Rising resistance threatens a key malaria drug →
Global Health NOW

How Republicans (sometimes) get on board with climate action →
Grist

What it means to be hungry in Gaza →
Al Jazeera

Scientists fear what’s next for public health if RFK Jr. is allowed to ‘go wild’ →
KFF Health News

Pharma’s influence on India’s global health engagement →
Think Global Health

Happy Thanksgiving, dear readers. We’re taking a break next week, but we’ll be back in your inboxes on December 5. See you then!

—Jo Zhou

P.S.: A quick correction. In my note at the end of last week’s newsletter, I said “the state” was deciding whether to renew North Carolina’s Healthy Opportunities Pilots. In fact, that decision lies with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Apologies for the error!

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Public health vs. politics

It may feel front of mind this week, but the long reach of partisanship into health care is nothing new—or unique to the United States. Paul Adepoju talks to Kai Ruggeri, a professor of health policy and management at Columbia University’s school of public health, about political polarization and its relationship to public health. Ruggeri’s research has found that all over the world, people’s health choices increasingly align with their political points of view, rather than medical advice.

Superbugs and hurricanes

What do these two things have to do with each other? It’s all about a lesser-known effect of flooding: unsafe water carried from a contained space into a public one. The prime example in this piece by AMR Action Fund CEO Henry Skinner: In 2017, “Hurricane Harvey sent at least 31 million gallons of raw sewage streaming into Houston’s neighborhoods,” leading to “alarming levels” of superbugs in flooded homes.

Weaving data into the fabric of public health

Many people in the public health sphere, including a writer or two from HPH, have been beating the data modernization drum for years. One solution professionals in Maryland found: put health information exchanges—data infrastructure from another part of the health ecosystem—to work for public health.

Community information exchanges quench health data droughts

Health workers often struggle to identify the social problems at the root of people’s health problems. Where health information exchanges—like the ones in the story above—aren’t yet coming through with more helpful data, some communities are filling in the gaps with  “community information exchanges.” The projects are on a mission to “blow the roofs off the silos of information,” in the words of one community leader—and they could provide a roadmap for the rest of the country.

Snapshot: Factory farms pose health risks for workers and people who live nearby

Researchers looked at how the health of local communities is affected by practices at U.S. factory farms.

What we’re reading this week

Crisis calls from LGBTQ+ youth spiked by 700 percent after Election Day →
The 19th

Are schools with armed police actually safer? →
Undark

Georgia looks to use opioid settlement to bridge gaps in help for drug abuse →
Healthbeat

How Big Toilet Paper dupes us all →
Vox

As the pandemic deepened, Americans kept drinking more →
The New York Times

If you read our op-ed on North Carolina’s Healthy Opportunities Pilots, you’re probably wondering if CMS decided to renew the program. The short answer: not yet. They’ve punted that decision to next month, but thanks to a temporary extension, the program will keep going in the meantime.

—Jo Zhou

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How the U.S. election has an outsized effect on global reproductive health

“Every U.S. presidential election pits the American mood against other countries’ sovereignty—and the health of their women and girls,” writes Christine Mungai. The reason? The “global gag rule” and the constant back-and-forth over its enforcement between Republican and Democratic presidents.

It’s not too late for Elon Musk to take Memphis’s environmental health seriously

It’s easy to understand why cities like Memphis would want an xAI computing facility: It could be a boon for the economy. But if Elon Musk’s company continues to ignore the rules, any benefits could be counteracted by further damage to the environmental and living conditions in the city—especially for its Black residents, argues Ben Adams.

A sound idea

An editorial cartoon by Jenna Luecke

Can a $10 billion climate bond address California’s water contamination problem?

Tucked into the California climate bond on the November ballot is a $610 million earmark to improve drinking water quality for roughly 750,000 people. The state admits that’s not enough to address the problem—but advocates say it’s a start.

Smart toilets could flush public health problems away →

Human toilets and their waste create many problems: environmental contamination, poor sanitation, and water shortages. But smart toilets could lessen those problems—and also use urine to benefit public health and the ecosystem.

What we’re reading this week

Why daylight savings time is worse for your body than standard time →
The Washington Post

Former FDA lawyers join tobacco industry in ‘epic’ fight against the agency →
The Examination

Zika is still spreading. Why don’t we have a vaccine yet? →
Vox

An age-old midwife tradition’s revival is saving vulnerable newborns →
Reasons to Be Cheerful

Myanmar residents struggle to overcome severe internet blackouts with Starlink →
Rest of World

U.S. election anxiety doesn’t end when the election does. If you’re still reeling from the events of this year, please check out this panel by my wonderful colleagues at the Harvard Chan Studio. It helped me focus on what really matters during these past few weeks of hostility, overstimulation, and division—and I hope it does the same for you.

—Jo Zhou

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Digital redlining perpetuates health inequity. Here’s how we fix it.

“Doctors often ignore one important social determinant of health: access to broadband internet,” writes Monica L. Wang, a professor at Boston University and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She says “digital redlining” is a modern version of the real estate practice that wasn’t outlawed by the U.S. government until 1968. The result: poorer-quality or no internet for some neighborhoods—and therefore, an inability to access essential services, including health resources and telehealth appointments.

Black residents in Cancer Alley try what may be a last legal defense to curb toxic pollution

In St. James Parish, Louisiana, a zoning ordinance divides industrial development along racial lines. When residents in a majority-White district pushed back against the construction of a solar farm, they got what they wanted—but residents in the majority-Black parts of the parish have had to weather one carcinogen-releasing development after another. The latest chapter in their fight may finally bring relief.

Snapshot: Nudging doctors to counsel parents on safe gun storage

More than four million U.S. children live in households with loaded and unlocked firearms, yet few pediatricians follow the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics to counsel parents and guardians on storing guns securely.

What we’re reading this week

Bombardments delay child polio vaccine campaign in Gaza →
Devex

Why could a silent asthma epidemic be sweeping Africa? →
Al Jazeera

Doctors are preoccupied with threats of criminal charges in states with abortion bans, putting patients’ lives at risk →
The Conversation

The push to prevent drownings in Uganda →
Global Health NOW

The pandemic agreement fractures in the latest negotiations →
Think Global Health

• Related: The W.H.O.’s pandemic treaty may spark a global health revolution →
  Harvard Public Health

Happy Halloween to our readers! Fallacious reports of tainted candy aside, you may think the field of public health and this spooky time of year don’t often intersect… and you’d be right. But Harris County Public Health in Texas had a clever idea to use the holiday as a PSA by dressing up as, well… see for yourself. Now that’s a conversation starter!

—Jo Zhou

The post HPH Weekly: Digital redlining perpetuates health inequity. Here’s how we fix it. appeared first on Harvard Public Health Magazine.

Universal health care may drive the vote in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico once embraced socialized medicine. Then U.S. regulations and shifting leadership pushed the archipelago into private health care. Now, a two-party alliance is trying to win election in November with a new single-payer proposal.

Avoiding discussion of vaccine side effects isn’t pro-vaccine. It’s anti-science.

Clinical trials have proven COVID-19 vaccines safe and effective for most people. But they have the potential to cause serious side effects in some people. Anthony Flint, who contracted Guillain Barre syndrome from the Johnson & Johnson jab, is one of those people. It’s unacceptable that public health continues to avoid talking about vaccine side effects in an effort to combat the anti-vax crowd, he argues.

A boy’s bicycling death haunts a Black neighborhood. 35 years later, there’s still no sidewalk.

An evocative story from KFF Health News shows us the consequences of structural racism on the neighborhoods some U.S. residents call home. 6-year-old John Parker lost his life to a traffic collision on Cheek Road in Durham, North Carolina. Over three decades later, residents of the majority-Black area continue to struggle with bureaucracy in their attempts to make the roads safer. “Local government takes money from the neighborhood but does not invest in it,” says the leader of one community group.

Snapshot: What does herd immunity mean?

Throughout history, there have been many definitions of “herd immunity,” which has led to confusion about how the term should be applied.

What we’re reading this week

Unraveling election misinformation on gender-affirming care →
MinnPost

Survey of trans youth reports high satisfaction with gender-affirming care →
The Washington Post

• Related: Families in states with bans on trans care are finding hope across state lines →
  Harvard Public Health
• Related: To protect gender-affirming care, we must learn from trans history →
  Harvard Public Health

Choosing to be child-free in an “apocalyptic” South Asia →
Al Jazeera

Happiness class is helping clinically depressed teachers become emotionally healthy →
The Conversation

The story of 6-year-old John Parker—and how his death continues to weigh on his family—is haunting. What makes it especially tragic is that it’s far from an isolated incident. Last year, Maura Kelly passionately argued that traffic deaths are so frequent and numerous, they constitute a public health crisis in the U.S.

—Jo Zhou

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Could worker cooperatives be a fix for the home care worker shortage?

Anyone who has been, or has known, a home care worker knows how thankless the job can be. The tasks are often difficult, the hours long—and with low pay, many people in these jobs find themselves among the working poor. It’s no wonder, then, that the U.S. faces an extraordinary labor shortage in this field. Liz Seeger explores how worker cooperatives could help.

Poor diets are killing us. Better spending on nutrition research can help.

The American diet leaves a lot to be desired, writes Aman Majmudar. Unfortunately, a lack of funding for nutrition research means we lack the data and analysis to drive a full understanding of exactly how much our poor diets are hurting us—and what solutions could be used to turn our health around. A new funding model for that research is the answer, he argues.

Post-pandemic paranoia

Data shows older men in the U.S. are less likely to have social networks or ask for help. It also shows they’re more vulnerable to heat-related deaths. Could these ideas be connected? The 19th‘s Jessica Kutz talks to experts in sociology and population science to find out.

Social isolation could be a factor in why more older men are dying from extreme heat

Data shows older men in the U.S. are less likely to have social networks or ask for help. It also shows they’re more vulnerable to heat-related deaths. Could these ideas be connected? The 19th‘s Jessica Kutz talks to experts in sociology and population science to find out.

Snapshot: Do Black women get C-sections more often than White women? It’s complicated.

Research shows that Black women get C-sections at a higher rate than White women. A new study found that’s true for some Black patients—but others, those with high-risk pregnancies, are actually less likely to get cesareans than White patients.

What we’re reading this week

The end of smallpox was… the beginning for mpox →
NPR

Asbestos released by Israel’s bombs will kill for decades →
Al Jazeera

A boy’s bicycling death haunts a Black neighborhood. 35 years later, there’s still no sidewalk. →
KFF Health News

Transportation justice in Music City →
Global Health NOW

Want to boost your mood? This video game could help →
GamesIndustry.biz

There is still much research to be done on the effects of video gaming on mental health—and not all the results will be positive, to be sure! But just as the above article showed a positive impact on solo players’ moods, this story from central Ohio gives an anecdotal demonstration of gaming’s ability to connect people. Could that be a solution to the isolation older men are experiencing, as explored in this week’s republished article, from The 19th?

—Jo Zhou

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Scurvy: not just for pirates anymore

Family physician Ramona Wallace often sees patients with scurvy, “a disease long forgotten by the medical system.” The treatment is easy: more vitamin C. And yet, in one extraordinary case, a patient had gone 30 years without anyone in the health care system recognizing he was malnourished. According to Wallace, the blame lies with a lack of nutrition education—and a systemic focus on looking for more costly diagnoses.

A pair of public health optimists weigh in post-pandemic

Julia M. Klein reviews a pair of very different yet complementary books by Anthony Fauci and his former boss at the National Institutes of Health, Francis S. Collins. Fauci’s book “is a chronicle of a life well-lived,” writes Klein, while “Collins’s book is a cri de coeur that looks to the future.” Both authors see hope despite political polarization in the U.S.

Food banks are an unlikely line of defense during heat waves

Older adults with disabilities often struggle to leave their homes for grocery shopping, and heat waves make that challenge worse. In Grist, Frida Garza explores how some of our oldest and most reliable nonprofit institutions—food pantries and meals-on-wheels organizations—are helping to ease that burden in this era of climate change.

Snapshot: Heating up heart disease

Extreme heat has long contributed to deadly heart attacks; the dangers were once hot tubs and an occasional heat wave. But climate change is bringing longer and more frequent stretches of high heat.

What we’re reading this week

Anti-trans laws fueled a spike in suicide attempts among trans and nonbinary youth →
The 19th

• Related: Families in states with bans on trans care are finding hope across state lines →
  Harvard Public Health

Ugandan activists decry restrictive abortion laws →
Al Jazeera

After your death, who takes care of your dog? →
The New York Times

California is banning artificial food dyes in school snacks and drinks. Here’s what the science says →
CalMatters

Experts skeptical of India’s target to eliminate leprosy by 2027 →
The Guardian

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What should we do when public health principles conflict?

Public health professionals sometimes need to make decisions that conflict with core principles of the field, argues Eric Coles. Unfortunately, he says, there is little training or support to help people make those decisions with confidence. And yet the challenge isn’t going away. “Communities need leaders who have the skills to make imperfect decisions and justify them to the public, other professionals, and researchers,” he writes.

Bringing public health data into the 21st century

Quick: which field is still using faxes in 2024? If you said “public health,” you’re right—unfortunately. That’s just one of the many data problems in public health, says Jennifer Layden, director of the CDC’s Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology.  But she has an ambitious plan to break down the siloes and make data more widely available.

One man’s recovery is helping other families through the grief of overdose deaths

When people lose loved ones to opioid overdoses, a complicated kind of grief follows, and the stigma surrounding substance use makes it difficult for many people to talk about their loss. As a recovering heroin addict, Levi Wardell understands these feelings better than most. He’s made it his mission to help families navigate the process of mourning their loved ones in his work as a funeral director in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The resilience playbook

An Imperfect Storm recounts Nigeria’s response to COVID-19 from the alternating perspectives of Vivianne Ihekweazu, who heads the watchdog group Nigeria Health Watch, and her husband Chikwe Ihekweazu, director of the country’s Centre for Disease Control. The book “is a call to action for African leaders to invest more in health security—and to move away from the dependency on external support that often leaves their health systems vulnerable,” says Paul Adepoju in his review.

Snapshot: Exploring the mental health impact of cancer

Many cancer survivors struggle with significant, often untreated psychological distress: the fear that their cancer will return. Researchers found a way to tell which patients are most vulnerable to severe distress, which can be debilitating.

What we’re reading this week

A new program in Maine offers a way to help young Afghan refugees heal →
NPR

Nearly 40 percent of Gen Z men don’t have a primary care provider →
The Washington Post

Early warning systems vital for climate risk preparedness in Kenya →
Global Health NOW

The farm bill must support farmers affected by PFAS contaminated sewage sludge →
Barn Raiser

Part of the ocean has been granted legal personhood →
Hakai Magazine

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