This week, a Senate panel voted to confirm the nomination of Dr. Ben Carson to be the next Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. With this confirmation, the political uncertainty of recent months now extends to the area of US housing policy. Dr. Carson has criticized HUD policies meant to address housing inequities, calling these moves “social engineering,” an attitude at odds with the department’s stated mission to “build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination.” Given Carson’s view of HUD, it is an open question whether he will enforce policies that are in line with the agency’s goals, or chart a different path.

With Donald Trump and his team set to replace the outgoing Barack Obama administration, there is much to discourage gun safety advocates. Trump's most recent positions on guns includeopposition to gun-free zones, support for requiring states to recognize concealed-carry permits issued in other states, and opposition to gun and magazine bans, including bans on assault weapons. Trump also enjoys the support of the National Rifle Association, which spent more than $30 million to bolster his campaign during the election.

Tuesday, Robert Kennedy, Jr. said that President-elect Donald Trump asked him to chair a committee meant to investigate the scientific integrity of vaccines. Kennedy has expressed skepticism in the past about the efficacy of vaccines, lending his support to the widely debunked idea that vaccines cause autism. The Trump team has since said that the committee would actually be on autism and that no decisions about it have yet been made. Either way, Kennedy’s potential appointment in the Trump administration is a troubling development, signaling the President-elect’s apparent willingness to lend a sympathetic ear to unscientific and dangerous claims about the supposed “hazards” of vaccines.

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.

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.

“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 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.

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.