Theme: Public Health in a Changing Climate
The Threat of Air Pollution and What We Can do About it
BY ESSEY AFEWERKI On February 25th, 2026, Yale University’s School of Public Health was fortunate enough to host Dr. Sara Dubowsky Adar (ScD, MHS), professor of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health. Dr. Adar’s presentation, “Air Pollution Research to Inform Public Health Policy and Action,” outlined several of her key research …
Using Science for Good: Dr. Albert Ko and his Career in Global Health
BY PAIGE MAHONEY According to Dr. Albert Ko, MD, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH), “we cannot lose an opportunity to use science to correct injustice.” This principle has guided him since the beginning of his career, and it was a central throughline in his lecture on…
Bird Migration, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, and a Potential Next Pandemic
BY PAIGE MAHONEY On September 25th, 2025, over 1.2 billion birds took to the skies, setting a record for the largest single-night migration total ever recorded.1 Bird migration is arguably one of nature’s most impressive phenomena, a feat of endurance that requires constant communication with other members of a flock and precise navigation skills. These…
The Mental Health Crisis Among Refugees
BY ISABELLE WOLCHEK In June 2025, over 117 million people were forcibly displaced globally, including 42.5 million refugees and 67.8 million internally displaced people.1 Families and individuals are uprooted for various reasons, such as conflict, ethnic oppression, political beliefs, and group affiliation.2 As a result, refugees face elevated rates of psychological disorders, such as post-traumatic…
Beyond Extraction: How Bilateral Collaboration Can Salvage Global Health Equity
BY ANNABEL WOODWORTH While migration in healthcare is normally discussed in terms of patient access, the movement patterns of healthcare providers are critical in building viable global health systems and delivering equitable care. Since the emergence of the term ‘Brain Drain’ in the early 1960s, the migration of highly skilled professionals, particularly in healthcare, has…
Migrating for a Miracle: The Geographic Divide in Rare Cancer Treatments
BY MATEO RAMÍREZ-VALENTINI Medical Migration in Rare Pediatric Cancers In 2021, an eight-year-old girl named Delfi Bollo traveled from Córdoba, Argentina to Houston, Texas, seeking a treatment that her country could not offer her. Her family raised more than $350,000 through crowdfunding and an Instagram account—@todos.por.delfi.cba, “all for Delfi”—built entirely by her parents. It still…
Emigration on Eating: A review of climbing obesity trends amongst Mexican Immigrants
BY MYLA TOLIVER In recent decades, there has been a dramatic increase in the prevalence of obesity in the U.S.: men’s rates rose from 11.7% in 1991 to 39.2% in 2021, and women’s from 12.2% to 41.3%1 2. This health crisis is expected to worsen, with a projected 50% of Americans expected to be obese…
The Global Price of Progress: The Geography of Robotic Surgery
BY EVAN BOWMAN As surgical robots take over more of the operating room, surgeons feel their hands slipping further from the patient, and the trade-offs—costly machines, unequal access, and shifting skills—cut closer to the bone. A patient lies asleep in the center of an operating room. Blue drapes cover their body, leaving only an opening…
The United Nations’ History of Violating the Human Rights they Claim to Defend
BY KIERSTIN GEHRES When Dr. Rosana Edward entered a hospital in Haiti in 2010, she was met with a harrowing sight: patients lay across the floor, reaching out to her and grasping at her feet as they begged, “Help me. Please, help me.”1 This tragedy unfolded after the United Nations (UN) introduced a deadly, highly…
How Immigration Status Shapes Access to Healthcare Across Borders
BY SOPHIE NGUYEN Despite contributing significantly to public health systems, undocumented immigrants across the U.S. and Europe are systematically excluded from essential healthcare, revealing that immigration status is a core structural barrier to health equity. [Sourced from Canva Pro] Healthcare is recognized globally as a fundamental human right, yet access to it remains unevenly distributed.…
The Age of Intelligent Care
BY CRISTINA GARCIA A clinician in a crowded ward turns away from the laptop. An AI scribe listens to the conversation between a physician and patient, drafts the notes of the checkup, and files orders for review. Clinicians are able to, as a result, give their undivided attention to the patient and not be distracted…
ChatGPT, M.D.? Evaluating Bias and the Growing Prevalence of AI in Healthcare
BY ANNABEL WOODWORTH As new technologies, methods, and tools are introduced, the healthcare field continues to evolve and advance. Through research, clinical trials, and experimentation, scientists and physicians have transformed medicine from a rudimentary, intuitive practice to a highly quantitative, methodical, and standardized system. Perhaps the most significant development in medical practice of our generation,…
Access to Essential Medicines as a Human Right: Addressing Inequities in Sub-Saharan Africa
BY KAI ELLIS At the end of 2024, approximately 1.4 million children aged 0 to 14 were living with HIV worldwide.1 Strikingly, the vast majority of these children resided in sub-Saharan Africa, where limited access to antiretroviral therapy continues to determine life expectancy and quality of life.2 Access to essential medicines is not merely a…
Essential but Unaffordable – Why Medicines Old and New Remain Out of Reach
BY SHARNA SAHA The refrigerator hums softly behind the pharmacy counter, its shelves lined with neat rows of insulin vials. The liquid inside is colorless, unremarkable — yet for millions, it is the difference between life and death. At the register, a plastic insurance card slides across the counter; the receipt that prints moments later…
The Ongoing Battle for LGBTQ+ Human Rights in the United States
BY SYDNEY KIM Many people have heard the phrase, “that is so gay.” Although it is sometimes dismissed as a harmless joke, it reflects another unconscious way of perpetuating discrimination and outdated societal views from a time when being queer meant being “othered” and seen as unfavorable. During the 1970s and 1980s, the burgeoning modern…
The Impact of Ethiopia’s Program on Reducing Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission
BY RADIATE FASIL & FADHINA PETIT-CLAIR Introduction Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV remains a significant global health challenge. MTCT can occur during pregnancy, labor, delivery, and breastfeeding, and over 90% of children with HIV are believed to have contracted the disease through one of these routes. Without breastfeeding, MTCT occurs in 15–30% of cases; however,…
Prostate Cancer in Africa: When Silence Becomes a Death Sentence
BY ABDUR RAHMAN-OLADOJA Across much of sub-Saharan Africa, prostate cancer unfolds quietly, away from the urgency and visibility that other global health crises often command. It is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in African men, yet among the least resourced. This disparity reflects not only infrastructural shortcomings but also systemic neglect—an imbalance that exposes the…
The Hidden Cost of Conflict: Cholera Amidst Humanitarian Crises
BY PAIGE MAHONEY Born from the waters of the Ganges Delta in India, cholera has been intertwined with human history for millennia. Early Indian and Greek texts give some insight into when the disease first reared its ugly head, but it was not until the 19th century that cholera gained its reputation as a killer…
Rewriting Race in Medicine: How One Historian is Working to Redraft Misinterpreted Narratives of Black Women
BY MYLA TOLIVER “We did not have to get here, and if we can understand the thought process and events that got us to where we are today, we can become more equipped to make change in medicine.” – Sydney Green, 8th Year MD-PhD Student at the Yale School of Medicine At Yale, it is…
The Cost of Living: Immigration Policy and the Psychological Price
BY MAYEESHA ALVI I. Introduction Seventeen-year-old Ana lies awake at night, following episodes of insomnia and recurring nightmares. Panic attacks take hold of her entire body and her grades begin to slip. To her clinicians, her symptoms mirror post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). To her family, she is simply a young daughter afraid of losing her…
“ACT UP! FIGHT BACK!”: The Ongoing Need for Health Activism and Community Care
BY JANINA GBENOBA Since the start of the current U.S. presidential administration, public health protections for many, particularly those at the greatest socioeconomic disadvantage, have been slashed or repealed entirely. These changes have manifested in a number of ways: an executive order cutting off funding for gender-affirming research and care,1 a directive from the Department…
How Community Public Health Workers Enact the Right to Health
BY EVAN BOWMAN On any given afternoon in Buenos Aires, you might stumble upon a protest: retirees demanding healthcare, or neighbors rallying to protect a public clinic. Collective action is not exceptional here; it is habitual. One April afternoon, I noticed that my seventy-year-old host mother, Vicky, hung a banner ten feet above her front…
“It’s our Healthcare:” Risks of a Medicine Monoculture
BY AVA SHVARTSMAN In 2015, the United Nations pledged a responsibility for “good health and well-being” and a “partnership” through their 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to create a more equitable and sustainable world.1 To this end, many countries are attempting to share modern technology developed in their universities and laboratories beyond their…
The Dangers Inherent to RFK Jr. Defunding mRNA Vaccines
BY ESSEY AFEWERKI It is not particularly groundbreaking to say that the state of public health in the United States is in a historically precarious position. With the re-election and inauguration of Donald Trump to the office of President last January came an all-new presidential Cabinet, with new heads appointed to all major executive branches.…
Environmental Justice and Public Health in New Haven
BY SIMRAN UTTURKAR As the impact of industrialization on environmental pollution becomes a growing issue through the years, the disparities that exist between low income and affluent communities becomes more apparent. The people left most vulnerable to this crisis have had systematically unequal access to resources, political power and opportunities, and have been historically marginalized…
Sign Language Rights are Human Rights
Throughout Deaf history, a culture was silenced through institutional repression. Now, in the 21st century, the International Week of Deaf People represents a movement that celebrates and promotes language access for all. BY MICHELLE SO Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Caption: Renowned Deaf school Gallaudet University in Washington, DC.Courtesy…
Sex Education is a Human Right
BY SOOAH PARK Fans of the classic chick flick Mean Girls will be familiar with the sex education scene: “Don’t have sex, because you will get pregnant and die!”1 Though exaggerated for comedic effect, the global state of sex education is not far off. Less than one-third of adolescents from 155 countries surveyed by UNESCO…
Counterfeit Cures and Poisoned Promises: The Growing Burden of Substandard and Falsified Medicines
BY LILIA POTTER-SCHWARTZ Envision a child who has contracted pneumonia and is prescribed amoxicillin. After the child finishes their treatment, the ‘antibiotic’ is discovered to contain limited active amoxicillin, preventing full recovery while potentially increasing community rates of amoxicillin-resistant bacteria. Instances such as these represent a growing public health burden affecting individuals in every country:…
A Silent Cry: Medical Negligence in ICE Detention
BY NIRAJ SRIVASTAVA Impassioned immigration rhetoric echoes and booms across social media and national news. In the lexicon disseminated directly from the White House, immigrants are reduced to “killers, rapists, gangbangers, drug traffickers, and . . . violent criminals.”1 A swirl of outrage, protest, and demonization of immigrants has settled into the foreground of American…
Bridging the Stroke Divide: Reimagining Rural Stroke Education as a Right to Health
BY MRIDULA BHARATHI Every year, 12 million people experience an interruption in blood flow to their brain, with little warning, stealing them of their speech, mobility, and even life within minutes. Yet, while the biological mechanisms of stroke are universal, the chances of surviving one are not. In the United States, those living in rural…
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