SPH45: Welcoming our 45 Year | Boston University School of Public Health

Colleagues,

Happy New Year. I hope all had a safe and restful holiday, and that the new year brings with it renewed energy and hope for what we can accomplish in this year together. I am buoyed by the potential for public health to make a real difference in the lives of populations all years and especially this year.

This year is also special because it marks the School’s 45th Anniversary. In honor of this year, and the many years our community has served our shared mission, we have launched SPH45: Public Health. Now is the time. Every month, we will highlight a department, School-wide center, or strategic research direction. In this year of SPH45 and leading in an evolving and changing world, we have also updated our materials and programming. You will see a newly launched website, a refreshed design for all of our emails, and innovations in our Public Health Conversations.

Taking the Long View, After a Long Year | Boston University School of Public Health

This has been a difficult, unprecedented year. We have faced significant challenges—as a world, as a field, and as a school community. The COVID-19 pandemic has placed the work of public health at the center of the national, and indeed, global, conversation. Recent political, social, and economic developments have all intersected with our core mission of working towards healthier populations by engaging with the broader forces that shape health, with special regard for the vulnerable and marginalized. It has been inspiring indeed to see how the SPH community has pursued this mission in the midst of challenge, working to strengthen the foundations of justice and equity on which a healthy society is based. As we enter the time of reflection the holidays can bring, some thoughts on what the pandemic has taught us about our approach to health, and how these lessons can inform a vision of a healthier future.

Taking the Long View on Covid-19 | Psychology Today

Overnight, the first Covid-19 vaccines in a Western country delivered outside a clinical trial were given to patients in the UK. Today, we can say, to paraphrase a former British Prime Minister, that we are at the beginning of the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the months since the emergence of Covid-19, the world has been through some previously unimaginable changes. We have changed how we work, live, and play. Stay-at-home orders and guidance, and fear of the virus, have restricted where we can go and what we can do, the crisis seeming to stretch indefinitely. We are still very much in the thick of this challenge. Cases and deaths continue to rise and the indications are that this winter will be a hard one. However, as we end 2020, all signs suggest that this moment will, too, pass, that the time is coming when the Covid-19 pandemic will be a matter of historical record rather than daily struggle. The development of safe and effective vaccines and the efforts currently underway to widely distribute them mark a moment when we can finally say that the pandemic not only will not last forever, but that it will likely not even last until the end of summer. At the same time, the incoming Biden administration represents a chance for a political reset, an opportunity to navigate the end of the pandemic in a way that rejects counterproductive approaches and lays the foundations for a healthier world.

The Privilege Gap and Our Response to the COVID Pandemic | KCET

Authored by Sandro Galea and Nason Maani.

The COVID-19 pandemic has come to define 2020 around the world, and perhaps no more so than in the United States. At the time of writing, there have been over 12 million confirmed US COVID-19 cases and almost 260,000 deaths. In parallel, the likely health and equity costs of social distancing measures are in of themselves large and growing. One of the chief pressures facing leadership at local, state and national levels is the nature and timing of ramping up or easing social distancing measures, such as choosing when to open or close schools, for example.

These are not easy decisions for leaders to make. Each is fraught with uncertainty, resource implications and potential liability. Criticism and pressure come from a variety of sources, such as unions, parents, political opposition, trade associations and advocacy groups. And many of the challenges to the decisions that are being made around how to deal with COVID-19 — be they decisions to relax distancing measures or to expand them, to extend additional support measures or not — have been presented as being based on principle or on a pragmatic concern about risk of COVID-19. We acknowledge that it may well be that both principle and concern about risk are informing our collective decision-making. We suggest, however, that an unspoken factor that underlies many such deliberations is privilege.

Hope, and Health | SPH This Week

Vice President Joe Biden has won the 2020 US presidential election. There remains much to be resolved, not least of which will be President Trump’s concession. One can only hope that President Trump respects the outcome of the electoral process, avoiding the challenges that arise if the election’s resolution remains unsettled for some time.

As the political circumstances resolve, it seems reasonable to pause for a moment to reflect on the hope that comes with political renewal, and the inflection point a new administration offers towards creating a better, healthier world.

Learning From November 3: A Wake Up Call | The Milbank Quarterly

This was supposed to be an election about health. For the first three years of his presidency, Donald Trump presided over what appeared to be a robust economy, which he made the foundation of his re-election campaign. Polls last year suggested economic gains that could place Trump in a favorable position for re-election. Then, in 2020, there came a novel coronavirus, which became known as COVID-19. As of now, more than nine million Americans have been infected with COVID-19, and over 233,000 have died, a story that rightly has dominated the national conversation.

In response to this crisis, the president acted in direct opposition to public health and medical advice, sometimes seeming to reject the very existence of COVID-19, and making this outlook central to his re-election platform. This seemed at dramatic odds with how the country felt about COVID-19. Polls suggest that Americans consider COVID-19 to be an important threat—in June, 66% of Americans said they were worried about exposure to the disease. This concern is, of course, consistent with reality, with hundreds of thousands of Americans dying and many more becoming

infected with the virus.

Moving Forward, Together | SPH Today

As I write this Note, it is 11 pm on Election Night. Some of what I write may reflect a reality which has changed by the time you read this in the morning. As of this writing, it remains unclear who has won the presidential race.

This uncertainty comes on the heels of a challenging four years in many ways, not least for health. I have often written about how the Trump administration has embraced, in its rhetoric and its policies, a counterproductive approach to many of the factors that shape health. From its efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act, to its withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, to its targeting of immigrants and LGBT Americans, to its attempts to further fray our country’s social safety net, to its economic policies which deepen the inequalities that inform health divides, the administration has consistently deprioritized health. This is to say nothing of its mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic, where the administration’s willingness to downplay the virus and dismiss public health best practices has placed lives at risk. In falling short, the administration has—however inadvertently—reminded the country of how important issues like climate change, inequality, social justice, and investment in public health infrastructure are shaping a context that generates health.

And yet, despite this, this moment finds us with an election that is currently undecided, even as we have broad national acknowledgement that this election truly matters for much—and particularly for health.

US Election Result Must Not Obscure Need for Higher Education Reform | Times Higher Education

Authored by Sandro Galea and Nason Maani.

Whoever prevails in tomorrow’s presidential election, America’s universities face a period of immense challenge likely to test the most resilient of institutions.

Not only does the shadow of Covid-19 still loom large, along with the ensuing economic crisis that has raised the threat of staff redundancies even while universities consider the complexities of hybrid or online-only teaching, but other pressing issues also remain unresolved. Indeed, the pandemic has exposed a number of broader social crises and longer-term structural challenges for US higher education that can no longer be ignored. A major one is how to handle the ongoing calls to address structural racism; universities are grappling with their own role in perpetuating disparities, with recent campaigns such as #BlackInTheIvory highlighting the barriers faced by many academics of colour. Beyond this, higher education institutions must confront how racial disparities are exacerbated by admissions processes, fee structures, student debt and the final marks and degrees awarded to ethnic minority students. In parallel, universities must also strike the right balance between ensuring students feel welcome and safe on campus, yet are exposed to a diversity of speech and opinion.

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