Blogs - This Week In Public Health

Commentary

Destined to Suffer. How Prosperity Theology Is Shaping U.S. Health Policy

What if your health wasn’t just a matter of biology or economics, but of divine judgment? For centuries, American culture has been shaped by an unspoken theology: that the healthy are favored, and the sick are suspect. Today, as proposed cuts to Medicaid target the most vulnerable, it is worth asking. Are we still living […]

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Funding

Why Hospitals Are Turning to Blockchain

It started with a gap on the shelf. When a hospital supply manager did her morning check, two portable monitors were missing—again. They hadn’t been checked out, logged, or replaced. Later that day, she learned the same facility had been hit by a data breach. Patient records and inventory files were exposed. The cost wasn’t […]

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Technology

Emerging Health Innovations: Vision Restoration, Mpox, and mRNA Vaccines

Recent advancements in public health and medical science are significantly reshaping the landscape of global health. Innovations such as vision-restoring implants, developments in mRNA vaccines, and the impact of Mpox on public health highlight the intersection of technology and healthcare. In this post, we explore these developments and their potential implications for public health. Vision […]

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Commentary

Taking the Fight to Facebook: A Pilot of Science vs. Spin

Public health doesn’t just happen in hospitals or labs—it happens in the comment section.At This Week in Public Health, we’re running a real-time experiment on Facebook to see whether evidence-based engagement can actually change how people talk about health online. Instead of arguing or correcting from a distance, we’re testing a structured set of conversations […]

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Resources

Seeing the Big Picture: How System Dynamics Can Transform Public Health

Public health challenges rarely have simple causes or single solutions. Obesity, addiction, pandemics, and climate change all emerge from complex systems: interacting networks of behavior, policy, economics, and environment. To make lasting change, public health leaders need tools that help them see the bigger picture. That’s where System Dynamics comes in. What Is System Dynamics? […]

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AI

The AI-Driven Infodemic Threatening Public Health

A few years ago, “publish or perish” was an academic cliché. Today, it’s being supercharged by machines. Since ChatGPT burst into the scene in late 2022, artificial intelligence has infiltrated nearly every corner of science—writing, reviewing, and even summarizing research papers. The result? A flood of AI-generated studies that could overwhelm even the most diligent […]

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Health tips

Why Connection Is Public Health’s Missing Link

“Sometimes,” a local health director recently said, “I can get someone an appointment faster than I can find them a friend.” That quiet admission captures the paradox at the heart of the new U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory, Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation. While clinical interventions like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help individuals manage […]

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Policy

When Cannabis Laws Change, So Do Crash Risks

Picture this: It’s 1:45 a.m. on a quiet stretch of highway. A state trooper responds to a crash that looks like a tangle of metal and glass. Toxicology reports will later show what the eye cannot — both alcohol and cannabis were involved. It’s a scene that’s become increasingly familiar across the United States, where […]

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News

Next Week in Public Health, October 23, 2025

APHA is coming up, and we’ll have more details about that soon. We’re partnering with WE in the World to share tools, strategies, and methods to help continue the work from a grassroots perspective. Here’s what’s in the research. And what’s in the news. Anti-science bills hit statehouses, stripping away public health protections built over […]

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Environment

Zero-Fare Transit: Can Free Buses Improve Public Health?

I’m a Philly guy, and our public transportation system is a mess. There’s a lot of reasons for that, but I doubt you’ll find anyone who is satisfied with SEPTA. And this is a negative for public health throughout the city. But this happens in other cities, too. On a humid July morning in Kansas […]

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