Blogs - This Week In Public Health

Communication

Beyond “Trust the Science”: How Public Health Must Relearn How to Engage Communities

Public health is facing a paradox. On the one hand, never before has scientific evidence played such a visible role in public life. During COVID-19, epidemiological models shaped national policy. Scientists became household names. Research moved at historic speed. On the other hand, trust fractured. Scientists were harassed. Communities disengaged. Evidence was reframed as ideology. […]

Read more →

Mental health

A Quiet Crisis in Grandparent Caregiving and Depression

At 6:30 a.m., before most of her neighbors are awake, Mrs. Lin is packing lunches, checking homework folders, and nudging her 8-year-old grandson to tie his shoes. She is 67, living with arthritis, and often exhausted, but she is the only consistent caregiver he has. By the time he finally boards the school bus, she […]

Read more →

Global

Organ Trafficking: The Global Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight

Organ transplantation is one of the greatest achievements in modern medicine. For patients with end-stage kidney, liver, or heart disease, a transplant can mean decades of extended life. But for too many people around the world, the promise of transplantation is tied to a shadow system built on exploitation, coercion, and human suffering. Organ trafficking […]

Read more →

Implementation

“Barriers & Facilitators” Is a Broken Genre: A Working Hypothesis

There is nothing I find less exciting than an article with barriers and facilitators in the title. Not because implementation is easy. Not because context does not matter. But because, at this point, the genre has become so predictable that the abstract alone often tells you everything you are going to get. I can almost […]

Read more →

Global

A Conversation with Suleiman Yusuf

In this interview, I speak with Suleiman Yusuf, a Nigerian implementation science researcher and WHO/TDR Fellow whose work sits at the intersection of evidence, equity, and real-world health systems change. Trained in epidemiology with a specialization in implementation science at the University of the Witwatersrand, Suleiman’s research focuses on how evidence-based interventions, particularly for tuberculosis, […]

Read more →

Global

The Crisis of Sudan’s Collapsed Health System

As the war in Sudan rages on, the nation’s health system has reached a critical state of collapse, threatening the lives of millions. The country’s healthcare facilities are crumbling amidst warfare, disease outbreaks, and a dire shortage of resources, marking a significant public health crisis (UN News). This blog post looks at complex situation, exploring […]

Read more →

Climate

When Cyclones Fade, the Mental Health Toll Grows

क्या आप जानते हैं कि दिस वीक इन पब्लिक हेल्थ अब हिंदी को भी सपोर्ट करता है? बस नीचे बाईं ओर दिए गए आइकन को टॉगल करें! In the days after a cyclone makes landfall, the focus is clear: restore power, rebuild roads, distribute food, reopen clinics. On India’s eastern and western coasts, these routines […]

Read more →

Society

Can Sports Drive Racial Justice? What the Evidence Says

Note: This article is cross-posted from our sister site: This Week in Public Health. On a warm summer night in 2020, a local health department staffer scrolls through her phone after a long shift. The headlines aren’t about COVID case counts or vaccination clinics. They’re about athletes—kneeling, striking, refusing to play. In between emergency briefings […]

Read more →

Commentary

How “Gold-Standard Science” Has Been Weaponized in Public Health

As we close out the year, I want to revisit one of my least favorite trends. The misappropriation of scientific language. In public health, few phrases carry more authority than “gold-standard science.” It signals rigor, objectivity, and trustworthiness. But increasingly, this language is being repurposed—not to improve decisions, but to shut them down. What was […]

Read more →