�������ýҕ�l

The last time the world heard about a coronavirus outbreak in China, in early 2003, it ended up spreading to more than two dozen countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia, sickening about 8,000 people and killing almost 800. The illness was named severe acute respiratory syndrome, more commonly known as SARS and still remembered as a near miss. It could have been much worse, we were told — no thanks to severe mismanagement by health authorities in China and elsewhere. (Saad B. Omer, 1/23)

The perception that we may be on the verge of a worldwide pandemic may be greater than the reality in the case of the coronavirus, which is thought to have originated in China. The coronavirus has now infected over 600 people and has spread to Singapore, Saudia Arabia, and even the United States — although the World Health Organization has just declined to declare it a global health emergency. China announced that it is quarantining Wuhan, a city of some 11 million, and several nearby cities, blocking air and rail travel in or out, mass transit in the city, and starting to restrict highway travel as well. (Dr. Marc Siegel, 1/23)

Drugmakers have made significant scientific advances in recent years. Unfortunately, their ability to combat potential pandemics isn't included. Driven in part by high prices and an easier path to profit, pharmaceutical companies have increasingly focused on medicines targeting cancer and rare diseases, and they are often amply rewarded by investors for doing so. That's helped lead to important new drugs and a notable drop in American cancer deaths. But, as I have noted, those efforts can come at the expense of vital but less lucrative work in the service of public health. (Max Nisen, 1/23)

Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and Mike Bloomberg claim they’re proposing a moderate, less disruptive approach to health-care reform when they advocate a public option—a government policy offered as an alternative to private health insurance—in lieu of Medicare for All. Don’t believe it. My research finds that such proposals would increase the federal deficit dramatically and destabilize the market for private health insurance, threatening health-care quality and choice. (Lanhee J. Chen, 1/23)

It was 30 degrees on Wednesday night and David Putney said it was one of his best evenings in a long time. Dressed in a mustard-yellow full-body padded jumpsuit he used to wear when he worked in construction, he was still bone-cold. And he asked whether we could stand above a sidewalk grate to talk. It was about 20 degrees warmer in the cloud of dank grate air. (Petula Dvorak, 1/23)

What if the United States government took the DNA of vast numbers of Americans for use without their consent? The Trump administration has just brought us one step closer to that dystopia. On January 6, the federal government began collecting DNA from any person in immigration custody — previously, it had required only fingerprints. With this move, the federal government took a decisive step toward collecting and tracking large numbers of its citizens’ genetic information too. (Daniel I. Morales, Natalie Ram and Jessica L. Roberts, 1/23)

Davos went to President Trump’s head. Perhaps it was the rarefied air of the annual World Economic Forum, a place where billionaires congratulate one another on what they see as their unique virtues and smarts. Perhaps it was the ego boost, as Trump basked in acceptance by a high-end business crowd that once held him at arm’s length. But whatever the reason, it caused Trump to make a major mistake. (Helaine Olen, 1/23)

The Supreme Court gave the Trump administration a gift Tuesday — one that could greatly help the president in the 2020 election. In an order that received less attention than it deserved, the court declined to speed up its consideration of a challenge to the Affordable Care Act. In that case, Texas v. United States, the Trump administration has argued that the court should invalidate all of the ACA, including its legal protections for people with preexisting conditions. The administration is pursuing this course even though President Trump has made bizarre assertions that imply quite a different stance. (Leah Litman, 1/23)

Well-intentioned efforts to help others often backfire, but we can learn from our mistakes. Vaping has captured the nation’s attention with news that it can be deadly, but many Americans are still buying e-cigarettes. And despite large-scale public health campaigns advocating vaccination, the U.S. is experiencing outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. Our country is trying to contain the growing use of methamphetamine, but without much luck. (Jessica Fishman, 1/24)

Policies, whether they are federal, local, state, administrative, or at an individual institution’s level, sometimes fail to address the deeper issues that created the problem or ignore the issues that may arise as a result. Social problems and social determinants of health affecting everyone, from youth to elders, can’t be addressed with a simple checkbox system or a straightforward policy. (Dr. Laura Deon, 1/21)

This month the American Cancer Society (ACS) delivered good news to start the new year: steady progress has led to a drop of over 29 percent in cancer deaths since 1991. The dramatic decrease has led to an estimated 2.9 million lives saved in the last 25 years. Over the past decade, the improvement in overall cancer survival is mostly a result of better outcomes for patients with melanoma and lung cancer. The latter is especially significant because it is the leading cause of cancer deaths in both sexes. Lung cancer — which is my specialty — kills more people every year than colon, breast, prostate, and brain cancers combined. (Dr. Michael Liptay, 1/23)

Seventy-five years ago, on Jan. 25, 1945, public health officials began an experiment in Grand Rapids, Mich., to prevent the pain, misery, and cost of tooth decay: adjusting the level of fluoride in drinking water. Cavity rates plunged with fluoridation. Today, 211 million Americans have access to fluoridated water. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hailed this strategy as one of 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century. Yet as we celebrate this milestone, community water fluoridation faces a renewed threat from a recent study. (Jennifer Meyer, 1/24)

Traffic lights are useful for managing intersections — less so for making food choices. The traffic light diet and related food-labeling systems have gradually become more popular over the past several years, used in dieting apps, on food labels and in cafeterias. Even Google and the Army are on board. But the danger is that labeling foods as “green,” “yellow” or “red” won’t really help us become healthier eaters — just guiltier ones. The original traffic light diet was developed in the 1970s for use in pediatric weight-loss research. It’s largely based on calories: Green foods are low in calories, yellow foods are moderate and red foods are high. (Carrie Dennett, 1/20)

At 31, I was diagnosed with bipolar II and generalized anxiety disorder. At first I hated the powerful drugs I was prescribed. They scared me. But the black moods, hypomania and panic attacks that almost landed me in the psych ward scared me more. After years of trial and error, I landed on the right combination of meds. Seroquel tamed mood swings, Lamictal regulated the full-body agitation that comes with bipolar, Remeron helped anxiety and depression. (Jennifer Pollock, 1/20)

We sat in toddler-size wooden chairs around an orderly circle of Chinese 2-year-olds, busy with circle time. As a parent of three children who collectively spent 15 years in American day care, I am very familiar with circle time. But I was in this Shanghai classroom as a professor, with college students from many different countries in a class I’m teaching here on children and childhood. (Dr. Perri Klass, 1/20)