Opinion: Disadvantage indices can help achieve equitable vaccine allocation
Policymakers have wrestled for months with how to fairly prioritize populations for Covid-19 vaccines. But…
Category: First Opinion
Opinion: The bystander effect, Covid-19 vaccine edition
What do Covid-19 vaccination and the stabbing death of a woman outside of her New…
Opinion: Decentralized clinical trials: Collaboration is needed to drive their adoption and impact
Despite groundbreaking advances in basic and clinical science and technology, clinical trial methods have not…
Opinion: New coronavirus variants call for intensified surveillance, control, and vaccination efforts
The Covid-19 virus is evolving rapidly. That should come as no surprise: RNA-based viruses generate…
Opinion: Denied treatment, some Covid long-haulers could become lifelong-haulers
“Long-haulers are truckers who are on the road for a long time. But in the…
Opinion: Governments’ alcohol subsidies are harmful to public health
Each January, millions of people around the world make resolutions to cut back on the…
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Opinion: Too many Covid-19 patients face death alone. Vaccinated volunteers could change that
I got my first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine on Dec. 16, and was surprised…
Opinion: The Biden-Harris FDA should make friends with independent researchers
Support for open science — accessible, collaborative, and radically transparent research done outside of traditional…
Opinion: It’s time to be more open-minded to newcomers moving into health, even from tech
Silicon Valley types like to talk about disrupting things. But health care doesn’t want to…
Opinion: The number of Americans without health insurance has been trending up. Let’s turn it down again
In 2020, the United States entered its most severe public health crisis in a century…
Opinion: The stakes for choosing the right FDA commissioner couldn’t be higher
An independent, credible, science-led Food and Drug Administration has long been vital to America’s public,…
Opinion: The day we let Covid-19 spin out of control
Jan. 24 marks the one-year anniversary of a momentous but largely unnoticed event in the…
Opinion: Travel bans should be based on evidence, not politics or fear
The Trump White House on Monday released a presidential proclamation terminating travel bans on visitors…
Opinion: The race to where? A primary care session during the pandemic
The green dots on the schedule screen in my primary care office light up in…
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Opinion: Antibody-assisted vaccination will speed the path to protection
After almost a year of pandemic terror, the end is in sight. But you still…
Opinion: Azar’s ‘Sunset Rule’ will bring a dangerous new dawn for health regulation
Alex Azar, secretary of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, spent his final…
Opinion: Welcome back to the global health stage, America. You have a lot of work to do
The last four years have seen a devastating erosion of American leadership on global health….
Opinion: Startups should focus on innovations that truly improve mental health
An unexpected side effect of the tragedy of the Covid-19 pandemic is unprecedented opportunity for…
Opinion: Staying safe in the time of coronavirus: pay attention to ‘the guy you know’
For the last nine months, my team of anthropologists and I have been asking people…
Opinion: Are more people surviving Covid-19 because doctors are doing less?
Last month as my colleagues and I took care of Mrs. Smith (not her real…
Opinion: Businesses across the supply chain must work together to make Covid-19 vaccines
As a scientist leading a company focused on RNA, I have cheered Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna,…
Opinion: With Covid-19, ‘vaccine nationalism’ is a worrisome trend
Just after New Year’s Day, regulators in India granted authorization for restricted use to Bharat…
Opinion: Using technology to help heal health care disparities
For the first time in its 54-year history, CES (formerly known as the Consumer Electronics…
Opinion: Keep Covid-19 vaccination decisions out of the courtroom
Given the mounting frustration over the slow pace of vaccinations, yesterday’s HHS announcement broadening the…
Opinion: ICE must provide Covid-19 vaccines to all detained migrants
After months of public health and political debates on vaccine prioritization for incarcerated populations, Covid-19…
Opinion: To make Covid-19 exposure apps work, integrate them with existing popular apps like Facebook
The beginning of the end of the Covid-19 pandemic may be at hand in the…
Opinion: Crossing the threshold: violence against home visiting nurses
It’s a difficult time to be a nurse. It’s an even more difficult time to…
Opinion: States and hospitals: overhaul your vaccine plans with data before it’s too late
The first phase of the vaccine rollout, which is supposed to deliver shots to roughly…
Opinion: Stop sidelining science. Bring back federal scientific advisory committees
In a move touted as “improving the utility of federal advisory committees,” President Trump signed…
Opinion: We lost to SARS-CoV-2 in 2020. We can defeat B-117 in 2021
We are barely a week into 2021 and already there are urgent warnings about a…
Opinion: Even during a pandemic, hospitals must make family visits and communication the standard of care
Since the start of the pandemic, nearly 340,000 Americans have died of Covid-19, many of…
Opinion: Mother Nature is not ‘the ultimate bioterrorist’
Despite the menacing track record of emerging pathogens, “Mother Nature is the world’s worst bioterrorist,”…
Opinion: Even in a virtual JPM week, we need to maintain the relationship glue that keeps the biotech industry strong
Every January, the week of the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPM week) is a…
Opinion: Along with vaccine rollouts, the U.S. needs a National Hi-Fi Mask Initiative
Though the first Covid-19 vaccines are now being given to health care workers, other frontline…
Opinion: Wastewater-based epidemiology: a 20-year journey may pay off for Covid-19
When I entered public service in 1991 as a research scientist with the Environmental Protection…
Opinion: The FDA needs to apply its Covid-19 flexibility to pediatric cancer
One of the few bright spots in the Covid-19 pandemic has been the swift development…
Opinion: 5 scenarios for containing the Covid-19 pandemic and returning to a ‘new normal’
“When will this pandemic be over so we can return to normal life and an…
Opinion: Doctors on social media are being cyberbullied and sexually harassed. It’s time to change that
As women in medicine who use social media to advocate for public health and social…
Opinion: Proposed new rules for a J-1 visa will hinder America’s fight against Covid-19
As Covid-19 infections once again surge across the United States, one of the biggest obstacles…
Opinion: Decades of basic research paved the way for today’s ‘warp speed’ Covid-19 vaccines
The emergency use authorizations of mRNA vaccines by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna and the likely gradual…
Opinion: Instead of debating ‘first-shot’ vs. ‘set-aside’ vaccine approaches, hospitals’ study should compare them
The FDA authorizations of two Covid-19 vaccines so far specify two-shot regimens, spaced three weeks…
Opinion: Incentives and information drive health care innovation: lessons from Medicare Advantage
Health care in America often feels like it moves at a glacial pace, if that…
Opinion: Who’s choosing Americans’ medications — doctors or insurers? The bane of prior authorization
New Year’s Day, the day of new beginnings, is a day health care providers like…
Opinion: As a doctor in the Covid-19 era, I’ve learned that judging patients’ decisions comes easier than it should
Mrs. Gomes, my umpteenth patient of the day, is an older woman — only slightly…
Opinion: Stopping the syndemic: Covid-19 plus other debilitating and deadly diseases
With Covid-19 vaccines beginning to be distributed in the United States and other countries, and…
Opinion: 5 most widely read First Opinion articles of 2020
In a year of crisis and tragedy, 2020 lent itself to an abundance of opinions…
Opinion: David Dinkins, former NYC mayor, a teacher for our times
In the decades before Covid-19, two frightening infectious disease epidemics — HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis —…
Opinion: We stress tested banks in 2009. We need to do the same thing now for U.S. hospital systems
Following the market turmoil after the failure of Lehman Brothers in the fall of 2008,…
Opinion: We need long-term solutions for older Americans’ long-term care
“Mom is getting older,” my brother said to me as we chatted on the phone….
Opinion: STAT+: ‘There are a lot of potential Modernas’: The ‘Massachusetts Miracle’ is alive and well
With the Moderna vaccine, Massachusetts is having a moment. Ours is a story not about…