Tag: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

10 years on: the legacy of the Flint water crisis

Volume 403, Issue 10437
27 April1 2024 

WORLD REPORT  The exposure of residents to lead in drinking water caused a national outcry, prompting requirements to update infrastructure and tighten water quality standards. Susan Jaffe reports.  

“Flint is making an impact beyond Flint”, said Mona Hanna-Attisha, a Flint paediatrician who collected data on children’s lead blood levels in 2015. “We’re sharing those big lessons—the need to respect science, the need to invest in prevention, the need to pay attention to things like infrastructure and inequities, but also the really amazing lesson of doing something about it.”. [Continued here]…

Sackler money to go towards reducing overdose deaths

Volume 401, Issue 10392  ||  10 June 2023  

WORLD REPORT  A US $6 billion settlement must help to expand treatment access, harm reduction programmes, and recovery services. Susan Jaffe reports.

Federal, state and local governments along with community organisations may soon receive an infusion of US$6 billion to fight the opioid epidemic, including at least $775 million for victims and their families, after a federal appeals court approved a bankruptcy settlement for Purdue Pharma and its founders, the multi-billionaire Sackler family. However, in a controversial move last month, the court also restored protections for the Sacklers from civil lawsuits, despite accusations that their illegal schemes to boost sales of the company’s strongly addictive pain killer, OxyContin (oxycodone), vastly increased their wealth. But without this shield, the agreement would have remained mired in court challenges. [Continued here.] …

US CDC begins agency-wide changes after pandemic failures

Volume 400, Issue 10365
19 November 2022 

 

WORLD REPORT  An independent review made several recommendations for improving the public health agency. Susan Jaffe reports from Washington, DC.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is on a mission to reorganise and modernise itself, so that its mistakes during the pandemic will not happen again. The aim is to make the nation’s leading disease detective more nimble and accountable, and fortify its role as public health protector. But although some changes have been made, progress will be limited without support from Congress. [Continued here.] 
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Rochelle Walensky: New Director of the US CDC

Volume 397, Issue 10271 
14 January 2021
PROFILE  Rochelle Walensky 

A highly respected researcher, Walensky has published nearly 300 papers, many focused on the cost-effectiveness of HIV interventions and aimed at improving patients’ care. “I call the research that I do policy motivating”, Walensky says. One example is a 2006 landmark study showed that advances in HIV treatment in the USA added nearly 3 million years to patients’ lives.[Full story here.]…

LGBTQ discrimination in US health care under scrutiny

Volume 395    Number 10242     
27 June 2020                          
WORLD REPORT  A US Supreme Court ruling could undermine the Trump Administration’s plan to roll back some protections against sex discrimination. Susan Jaffe reports. 

The Trump administration suffered a major defeat last week a major defeat last week in the US Supreme Court, which could undermine its attempt to scrap protections under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) against sex discrimination. In a landmark decision on June 15, the court ruled that the Civil Rights Act protects gay and transgender workers from discrimination by their employers. But days later, Trump Administration officials at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) finalised a more permissive standard for discrimination in health care. [Continued here.]  

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