5 dead, but hundreds more suffering | The Boston Globe

In some ways, mass shootings like the tragedy Friday at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida have become a numbers game.

“Five dead,” the headlines proclaim. An average of 91 Americans killed by guns per day. Thirty-thousand gun deaths per year in the past decade. A gun murder rate that is 25 times the average of comparable countries.

But as we rightly focus on those who are killed by firearms, we risk underestimating the full health hazard of guns in this country. It is time to include the number of gun injuries — 13 in this latest shooting — in the national conversation.

6 New Year’s Resolutions to Create a Healthier World in 2017 | Fortune

As we look at a new year ahead with a new administration, it’s time to ask, what should we collectively be doing to improve our overall well-being. Should we decide to lose weight? Or to exercise more?

With this in mind, I would like to suggest an alternative focus for our New Year’s goals, one that engages with the core causes of health, taking the form of the following six resolutions, to truly improve the health of all.

Should Teachers Be Armed? Experts Pick Sides

“The presence of guns in any environment is the single biggest risk for harm due to guns, including intentional harm, accidental harm, or self-inflicted harm. The notion that the armed teacher can fend off evil doers is fictional, borne out only by idiosyncratic anecdote that has little bearing in fact. In short, there is no reasonable argument in favor of allowing guns in educational spaces. Doing so runs directly counter to the goals of a good education, and endangers the lives of teachers and students alike.”

The Inequality Imperative | Thrive Global

The 2016 election surfaced profound divides in American society. These divides manifested along a number of fault lines — particularly around race, ethnicity and gender. At core, however, this election hinged on national divides stemming from deep frustration, even despair, over the growing socioeconomic inequality in the United States, and its tangible consequences.

The Election And "The Other" | HuffPost

In the immediate aftermath of the 2016 election, I struggled with how to address my school community. As Dean of the Boston University School of Public Health, I am part of a school that cares deeply about the social, economic, and environmental conditions that shape the health of populations; conditions that are closely tied to the state of our politics. As an immigrant to this country, the election took on an even more personal relevance. Informed by both perspectives, the following is a version of a note I sent to our students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Like me, it is sad, but hopeful.

Op-Ed: On Social Divides and Health Divides | Healthcare of Tomorrow | US News

The 2016 election is over and we enter an era led by President-elect Donald Trump. The election, long and rancorous, revealed deep divides in America. The rise of Trump was clearly fueled by the anger of a long-marginalized segment of our society. The misogyny on display throughout the campaign demonstrated how far we still have to go in the area of gender equity, and the bitterness directed at Muslims, immigrants and people of color generally, sprang from a strain of ugly nativism that is inconsistent with American values, though, sadly, not American history. While a Donald Trump victory has been a sad endorsement of these values, it is worth remembering that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, which serves in some measure as a repudiation of the divisiveness and demagogy of the last year and a half.

10 steps the Trump administration can take to make America healthy again | STAT News

America’s poor health helped elect Donald Trump.

The United States has the worst health indicators among its peer nations, even though it spends far more money on health than any of those countries. Much of this health burden is borne by the same marginalized groupsthat found hope in the message of the president-elect.

The new administration should seize the opportunity to be bold and inventive and to take steps that can actually make a difference in the lives and the health of the people who elevated Trump to power. My own work, and that of others, suggests 10 key ways to accomplish such change.

The Unnecessary Persistence of Tuberculosis | HuffPost

The World Health Organization has just released its annual Global Tuberculosis Report. The report shows that even as tuberculosis (TB) rates continue to fall worldwide, the epidemic is larger than previously estimated, with 10.4 million new TB cases globally in 2015; over 95 percent of TB cases happen in low- and middle- income countries.