America Has A Health Care Gap, And Insurance Alone Won't Fix It | HuffPost

Health in America is characterized by profound divides; we have become a nation of health haves and health have nots. There is a 20-year life-expectancy gap between the country’s healthiest and least healthy counties, and a similar life-expectancy gap within counties.

These disparities are evident in every state, including Massachusetts, where residents have remarkable access to high-quality health care. The commonwealth has the most primary care physicians per 100,000 residents in the nation and the lowest rate of uninsured residents of any state, with less than 3 percent of the population without coverage.

POV: Harm of Border Separations Will Haunt US Future | BU Today

In recent weeks, much has rightly been written about the forced separation of families and children at the US-Mexican border. As details of the separations emerged, it became clear that we were witnessing an act of wanton cruelty carried out by an administration that has already done much to mainstream callousness in American life. Many of the detained children were being held in warehouse facilities; some, appallingly, were placed in cages. As former First Lady Laura Bush writes in the Washington Post, images of these facilities were “eerily reminiscent of the Japanese American internment camps of World War II, now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in US history.”

The Harm Done by Trump’s Border Separations Will Echo into the Future | Dean's Note

In recent weeks, much has rightly been written about the forced separation of families and children at the US border. As details of the separations emerged, it became clear that we were witnessing an act of wanton cruelty carried out by an administration that has already done much to mainstream callousness in American life. Many of the detained children were being held in warehouse facilities; some, appallingly, were placed in cages. As former First Lady Laura Bush wrote in The Washington Post, images of these facilities were “eerily reminiscent of the Japanese American internment camps of World War II, now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in US history.”

Thinking Better About the Unthinkable | Dean's Note

In recent weeks, a series of events have brought suicide to the forefront of the public debate. The subject was highlighted by a recent CDC report, which found suicide in the US increased by more than 25 percent since 1999. According to the report, suicide rose in nearly every state in the country. The report also found that suicides increased by more than 30 percent in over half of states, and about 45,000 people died from suicide in 2016 alone. The suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain put a pair of well-known faces to these alarming numbers, and the public mourning that followed these deaths prompted not just reminiscences of the lives lost, but renewed efforts to understand the intractable, unpredictable public health hazard that claimed them.

The Public's Health: Guns and Suicide | Public Health Post

Suicide is one of the very few causes of death that have remained stubbornly steady over nearly the past century. A recent CDC report showed that suicide rates have risen about 30% in the United States since 1999. This report revealed an increase among all sexes, racial/ethnic groups, and all ages; in 2016 there were nearly 45,000 suicides in the US. With the recent increase adding fuel to our concern, suicide is now the tenth leading cause of death in the country.  

Health, Law, and the LGBT Community: An Unfinished Story | Dean's Note

On Monday, the US Supreme Court decided the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop vs. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The origins of the case lay in a baker’s religion-based objection to serving a same-sex couple wishing to buy a cake for their wedding. The Court’s decision favored the baker, ruling on procedural grounds that he did not receive a fair hearing from the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, members of which had used language that Justice Kennedy, writing the Court’s majority opinion, said constituted evidence of “hostility to religion.” In this sense, the ruling was quite narrow, leaving unresolved the larger question of whether or not it is constitutional for businesses to deny services to LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) Americans. I refer the reader to the Viewpoint in SPH This Week by Professors Raifman and Ulrich, who discuss the legal basis of the court case in more detail.

The Public's Health: Violence is a Public Health Issue | Public Health Post

Nearly 20 people are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States every minute. One in three women and one in four men are victims of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner at some point in their lifetime. Nearly 18,000 people died from homicide in the US last year, with more than two-thirds of those due to firearms.

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