In this section of the newsletter, we provide excerpts of and links to relevant and topical studies, opinion pieces, blogs, and other articles published on leading scientific platforms on health systems, medicine, and allied social sectors, and reputed media platforms.
Editorial, published on March 11, 2023 in The Lancet
March 11 marked 3 years since WHO declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic. While the world is determined to move on from the acute phase, at least 65 million people are estimated to struggle with long COVID, a debilitating post-infection multisystem condition with common symptoms of fatigue, shortness of breath, and cognitive dysfunction, impairing their ability to perform daily activities for several months or years. The article discusses the widespread global harm to people’s health, wellbeing, and livelihoods resulting in extensive economic losses.
Hidden harms of indoor air pollution — five steps to expose them
Comment article published February 8, 2023 in Nature
Dirty outdoor air might grab the headlines, but learning how pollutants inside buildings form, accumulate and affect our health is equally crucial. The science of indoor air pollution is less developed than that of outdoor air, making it hard for governments to target policies and controls. The article talks about the need for decision makers to rely on scientific evidence to help them prioritize groups of interventions and to develop strategies for improving indoor air quality.
A Constellation of Storms: The Threat of Infectious Diseases
Opinion article published February 14, 2023 in Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health Blog
Infectious microbes constantly emerge and constantly mutate. To survive, we need extraordinary science and scientists. The opinion article by Arturo Casadevall, MD, PhD, a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor talks about the constantly evolving challenges involved in the field of infectious diseases. By training scientists better in the how and why of basic science, we can have a huge impact on humanity’s ongoing battle against infectious disease, he says.