On Yesterday's Events | Boston University School of Public Health

Dear colleagues,

Yesterday, we saw scenes of unprecedented violence and disorder in Washington, DC. For all the divisiveness of recent years, few of us could have imagined such chaos would reach the halls of government itself, as rioters breached the Capitol building, disrupting the functioning of government just as it was fulfilling a crucial task: counting the Electoral College votes confirming President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. There is so very much to sadden and anger us about what happened yesterday, and it will take time for the country to move forward in a difficult time. As we grapple with this moment and what it means for our democracy, I have found myself reflecting on how it intersects with our work as a public health community and with our mission as a school.

A key lesson of these last five years—indeed, a lesson of history in general—is that divisiveness poses a threat to health. Our health is a product of the connections we share. Your health depends on my health, my health depends on yours. This has been a fundamental fact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has elevated the importance of these connections. We have navigated these challenging months by working towards a collective vision of health, supported by all and for the benefit of all. We have pursued this vision not only through our collective efforts to slow the spread of contagion, but also by engaging with the root causes of poor health—in particular, with the challenges of socioeconomic marginalization and racial injustice. When we turn away from collective engagement, when we embrace the divides which can too-easily characterize our worldview, we undermine our ability to approach health as a public good, sowing the seeds of marginalization, and creating a sicker society.

Eight Operational Suggestions for a Renewed CDC | Milbank Quarterly

Authored by Sandro Galea, Lawrence O. Gostin, Alan B. Cohen, and Nicole Lurie.

The arrival of the first COVID-19 vaccines and of new Presidential leadership mark important turning points in the pandemic. President-elect Biden announced Rochelle Walensky, an infectious disease expert, as his nominee for CDC director, and policymakers are turning their attention to revitalizing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as the nation’s public health system at the state/tribal/local level. While a comprehensive blueprint for public health reform will take time, we outline eight key operational steps to revitalize the CDC. CDC’s renewal is imperative after a suboptimal performance during the pandemic, while also being politically undermined by the Trump administration.

SPH45: Welcoming our 45 Year | Boston University School of Public Health

Colleagues,

Happy New Year. I hope all had a safe and restful holiday, and that the new year brings with it renewed energy and hope for what we can accomplish in this year together. I am buoyed by the potential for public health to make a real difference in the lives of populations all years and especially this year.

This year is also special because it marks the School’s 45th Anniversary. In honor of this year, and the many years our community has served our shared mission, we have launched SPH45: Public Health. Now is the time. Every month, we will highlight a department, School-wide center, or strategic research direction. In this year of SPH45 and leading in an evolving and changing world, we have also updated our materials and programming. You will see a newly launched website, a refreshed design for all of our emails, and innovations in our Public Health Conversations.

Taking the Long View, After a Long Year | Boston University School of Public Health

This has been a difficult, unprecedented year. We have faced significant challenges—as a world, as a field, and as a school community. The COVID-19 pandemic has placed the work of public health at the center of the national, and indeed, global, conversation. Recent political, social, and economic developments have all intersected with our core mission of working towards healthier populations by engaging with the broader forces that shape health, with special regard for the vulnerable and marginalized. It has been inspiring indeed to see how the SPH community has pursued this mission in the midst of challenge, working to strengthen the foundations of justice and equity on which a healthy society is based. As we enter the time of reflection the holidays can bring, some thoughts on what the pandemic has taught us about our approach to health, and how these lessons can inform a vision of a healthier future.

Taking the Long View on Covid-19 | Psychology Today

Overnight, the first Covid-19 vaccines in a Western country delivered outside a clinical trial were given to patients in the UK. Today, we can say, to paraphrase a former British Prime Minister, that we are at the beginning of the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the months since the emergence of Covid-19, the world has been through some previously unimaginable changes. We have changed how we work, live, and play. Stay-at-home orders and guidance, and fear of the virus, have restricted where we can go and what we can do, the crisis seeming to stretch indefinitely. We are still very much in the thick of this challenge. Cases and deaths continue to rise and the indications are that this winter will be a hard one. However, as we end 2020, all signs suggest that this moment will, too, pass, that the time is coming when the Covid-19 pandemic will be a matter of historical record rather than daily struggle. The development of safe and effective vaccines and the efforts currently underway to widely distribute them mark a moment when we can finally say that the pandemic not only will not last forever, but that it will likely not even last until the end of summer. At the same time, the incoming Biden administration represents a chance for a political reset, an opportunity to navigate the end of the pandemic in a way that rejects counterproductive approaches and lays the foundations for a healthier world.

The Privilege Gap and Our Response to the COVID Pandemic | KCET

Authored by Sandro Galea and Nason Maani.

The COVID-19 pandemic has come to define 2020 around the world, and perhaps no more so than in the United States. At the time of writing, there have been over 12 million confirmed US COVID-19 cases and almost 260,000 deaths. In parallel, the likely health and equity costs of social distancing measures are in of themselves large and growing. One of the chief pressures facing leadership at local, state and national levels is the nature and timing of ramping up or easing social distancing measures, such as choosing when to open or close schools, for example.

These are not easy decisions for leaders to make. Each is fraught with uncertainty, resource implications and potential liability. Criticism and pressure come from a variety of sources, such as unions, parents, political opposition, trade associations and advocacy groups. And many of the challenges to the decisions that are being made around how to deal with COVID-19 — be they decisions to relax distancing measures or to expand them, to extend additional support measures or not — have been presented as being based on principle or on a pragmatic concern about risk of COVID-19. We acknowledge that it may well be that both principle and concern about risk are informing our collective decision-making. We suggest, however, that an unspoken factor that underlies many such deliberations is privilege.

Hope, and Health | SPH This Week

Vice President Joe Biden has won the 2020 US presidential election. There remains much to be resolved, not least of which will be President Trump’s concession. One can only hope that President Trump respects the outcome of the electoral process, avoiding the challenges that arise if the election’s resolution remains unsettled for some time.

As the political circumstances resolve, it seems reasonable to pause for a moment to reflect on the hope that comes with political renewal, and the inflection point a new administration offers towards creating a better, healthier world.

Learning From November 3: A Wake Up Call | The Milbank Quarterly

This was supposed to be an election about health. For the first three years of his presidency, Donald Trump presided over what appeared to be a robust economy, which he made the foundation of his re-election campaign. Polls last year suggested economic gains that could place Trump in a favorable position for re-election. Then, in 2020, there came a novel coronavirus, which became known as COVID-19. As of now, more than nine million Americans have been infected with COVID-19, and over 233,000 have died, a story that rightly has dominated the national conversation.

In response to this crisis, the president acted in direct opposition to public health and medical advice, sometimes seeming to reject the very existence of COVID-19, and making this outlook central to his re-election platform. This seemed at dramatic odds with how the country felt about COVID-19. Polls suggest that Americans consider COVID-19 to be an important threat—in June, 66% of Americans said they were worried about exposure to the disease. This concern is, of course, consistent with reality, with hundreds of thousands of Americans dying and many more becoming

infected with the virus.

This is the personal website of Sandro Galea. All photos are taken by Sandro Galea.