A few of the recent pieces I’ve liked: Vanessa Veselka at The Atlantic: In the Wake of Protest: One Woman’s Attempt to Unionize Amazon Marshall Allen at ProPublica: Without Autopsies, Hospitals Bury Their Mistakes Maryn McKenna at Superbug: Fecal Transplants: They Work, the Regulations Don’t Jonathan Cohn at The New Republic: Ron Wyden, Paul Ryan, […]
J. Freedom du Lac reports in the Washington Post that Army Spec. David Emanuel Hickman, killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad on November 14th, was the 4,474th US servicemember to be killed in Iraq. With all the US troops now gone from Iraq, Hickman’s death may well be the last servicemember fatality directly attributed […]
Following up on last year’s nine-minute animated video explaining the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Kaiser Family Foundation has produced a new interactive feature that gives examples of how different individuals’ situations will change (or not) in 2014 when the law is fully implemented. Click on character – 23-year-old uninsured graphic designer Phil […]
My colleague Susan F. Wood had an excellent op-ed in the Washington Post over the weekend about the Obama administration’s overruling of the scientifically grounded FDA decision to approve emergency contraceptive Plan B for over-the-counter sale without age restrictions. She begins by going back in time to a much more promising moment: President Obama’s signing […]
During the George W. Bush Administration, one of the prime examples of politics trumping science was the FDA’s refusal to approve the emergency contraceptive Plan B (levonorgestrel) for over-the-counter sale without age restrictions. Now, during the Barack Obama Administration, history seems to be repeating itself.
Although the news of a shopper using pepper spray was disturbing, I was glad that Black Friday 2011 passed without the kind of tragedy that happened in 2008, when 34-year-old Jdimytai Damour was killed by a stampede of shoppers at a Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, Long Island. OSHA cited Wal-Mart for a serious violation of […]
The UN climate talks going on in Durban aren’t likely to lead to any major breakthroughs, but it would be nice if the US could at least avoid backsliding on the better-than-nothing steps it’s taken on emissions. One important step for controlling emissions is ensuring the availability of affordable public transportation. Congress has helped make […]
A few of the recent pieces I’ve liked: A special investigative series by several reporters at Center for Public Integiryt/iWatch News and NPR: Poisoned Places: Toxic Air, Neglected Communities Deborah Blum at Speakeasy Science: About Pepper Spray (also see her followup, Fox News Food Products) and, relatedly: Judy Stone at the Scientific American Guest Blog: […]
Public Health Practice
Early investments matter: Infant mortality, vulnerable children, and foster care
A few thought-provoking pieces I’ve read this week demonstrate the extent to which the US is failing to invest in our next generation. John Schmid of the Journal Sentinel points out that 44 other countries have lower infant mortality rates than the US (by UNICEF ranking), and we’re tied for 45th place with Montenegro and […]
Thailand is experiencing its worst flooding since 1942, and millions of people are affected. The death toll has reached 533, due mostly to drowning but also to electrocutions. CNN reports that more than 113,000 people have arrived at 1,700 government shelters set up across the country, and Bangkok officials have warned residents of interruptions to […]