Explore
Search results
Sixty percent of American adults, and 75 percent of children, have been infected with SARS-CoV2. Coupled with immunity-boosting vaccines and medical progress, rates of severe disease, hospitalization, and death are all falling dramatically. Can we declare victory and move on? Or do the threats still facing vulnerable populations require continued precautions? The prospect...
Infectious diseases represent one of the greatest threats to global health and security. The failures of the Ebola crisis demonstrated that we remain woefully unprepared, but they also served as a wake-up call at the highest levels of policymaking across nations. The twelve-country Commission on a Global Health Risk Framework for the Future has urgently recommended an inte...
The pandemic revealed significant weak points in the health care safety net and compelled practitioners, executives, and policymakers to acknowledge deep inequities they failed to in the past. Since then, countless initiatives have been introduced, or expanded, to rebuild a system with inclusion at its core. So, what’s working? From telehealth counseling to mobile clinics,...
For decades, public health experts warned of a coming pandemic and developed recommendations to prepare—yet when it arrived, the response was a catastrophic failure. With better surveillance, perhaps we could have slowed the worldwide spread of the virus. Had the threat become less politically charged, a consensus-driven strategy might have slowed it down. Certainly, stron...
Scientists and policymakers all agree that another pandemic is inevitable—and that we are still not prepared. Whether it is a COVID mutation, a bird flu, or something entirely unforeseen, the extent of the dangers we will face depends on public health, clinical capacity, the lethality of a new virus, and the ease of its transmission. Early warning systems and an equitable...
Often overshadowed by terrorism, nuclear weapons, and cybercrime in the public imagination, pandemics may actually be the more existential threat to human civilization. And most experts agree: We’re woefully unprepared, and crucial funding for basic research, foreign aid, and preparedness is on the chopping block. What lessons have we learned from the Ebola crisis that can...
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert and Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, joins CNN Senior Medical Correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, to discuss the current state of the Covid-19 pandemic and the recent surge in cases as the US reopens. Fauci talks about the US response to the pandemic, including missed opportunit...
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the world to grapple with a long-standing truth: that poor diversity in early and late stage medical research remains a major threat to health equity. Overcoming barriers and challenges to fair representation in research and development will not happen overnight, nor can it be achieved by a single institution. In order to pioneer lasting and su...
As the COVID-19 virus began to burn across the globe last year, virologist Nathan Wolfe had been studying how viruses cross over from wild animals to humans. He was also among the scientists and public health experts sadly prescient about something that is now abundantly clear: The world is woefully unprepared to prevent the spread of novel viral threats. In this conversat...
Inequitable and untimely responses to COVID-19 and other pandemics. Disproportionate health impacts of climate change in Africa. Unequal financing mechanisms. Lack of reliable data and information. A dearth of leadership guided by human-centered values. These are a few of the many challenges that stand in the way of global health and development systems that work for all....
By 2030, the world will face a shortage of almost 14 million health care workers. In the United States alone, we’ll need as many as 35,000 more primary care doctors over the next decade. Without adequately trained health professionals, universal access to health care will remain out of reach and preventable illnesses and deaths will rise. That’s a threat not only to indivi...
An entire generation of children in some of the world’s poorest countries are now protected against deadly infectious diseases, thanks largely to Gavi: The Vaccine Alliance. Impact: more than 16 million lives saved, vast healthcare cost savings, and greater global health security. A leading force behind the push for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, Gavi has played a...
Since its founding, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed billions of dollars to the search for and distribution of vaccines across the globe. Its knowledge, network, and resources are now being tapped amid the accelerated search for treatments for COVID-19. Gates joins Stephanie Mehta, editor in chief of Fast Company, and shares his expectations for a vaccine...
Polio is likely to be wiped off the planet in the next two years, a huge triumph for global health. Seventy-four cases of polio were reported in 2015, in contrast to 350,000 when eradication efforts began in 1988. Although polio remains endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan, there is now a push towards the finish line, with creative strategies in place to attract religious l...
There’s a mental health crisis plaguing America’s youth. The last decade saw major increases in adolescents who reported having a depressive episode, and “serious loneliness” affected a majority of young adults—and the global pandemic has likely worsened these conditions. The stats are staggering, but we need to do more than just talk about them, and come together as paren...
Art tours for physicians, a choir for nurses, on-demand meditation for all healthcare workers. Clinical settings everywhere are testing support and wellness interventions to boost emotional health and tame the widespread stress and burnout among physicians, nurses, and other providers that intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to strain so many. Clinical s...
Visionary leaders question established patterns, work collaboratively across disciplines and hierarchies, and trek fearlessly into uncharted territory. By encouraging risk-tasking, nurturing creativity, and championing unconventional thinking, they push the boundaries of what’s possible. Hear from a panel of trailblazers in health about what is required in a century that h...
Mental-health and substance-use disorders — arguably more prevalent than ever during the pandemic — are a leading cause of disability globally. So it’s no wonder the clinical use of psychedelic drugs to help treat psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, depression, and PTSD, is fueling a research renaissance. Even Wall Street is taking notice: Three psychedelic drug dev...
Congress is engaged in vigorous debates about health reform, the federal budget, and other sweeping policy changes that could have a potent impact on health. The future of Obamacare and the possibility that Medicaid may be significantly restructured or cut back dramatically are very much in play. The level of funding for the biomedical research and public health activities...
Best known to the public as the Trump Administration’s White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator, physician Deborah Birx is a clinical immunologist who has also served as US Global AIDS coordinator and a colonel in the US Army. Challenged to speak the truth about COVID-19, she balanced candor and political pragmatism to get out accurate information. Her new book, Sile...