Op-ed introduces conceptual framework to better understand how “intersectional stigma” affects HIV prevention and care outcomes among sexual minority men in sub-Saharan Africa

Graphic of conceptual framework of intersectional stigma

Yerby Fellow Adedotun Ogunbajo, PhD, HCPDS faculty members Kenneth H. Mayer, MD, and Alexander C. Tsai, MD, PhD, and their colleague Phyllis J. Kanki, ScD, have published an editorial in the American Journal of Public Health that puts forth a framework  that illustrates and dissects the “interconnected systems of stigma” that are likely serving as impediments to receiving quality HIV health services for sexual minority men (SSM) in sub-Saharan Africa.…

What is driving the decline in life expectancy in the U.S., and what can be done about it?

Abandoned automobile factory

An op-ed on health policy published in JAMA explains why the healthcare sector can only skim the surface when it comes to addressing the deep structural drivers in declining life expectancy.  The authors —Atheendar S. Venkataramani, MD, PhD, former Harvard RWJF Health & Society Scholar Rourke O’Brien, PhD, and Harvard Pop Center faculty member Alexander C. Tsai, MD, PhD —make a strong case for why the U.S. needs to enact bold…

This time-series analysis shows state-level social distancing slows growth of U.S. COVID-19 epidemic

Headshot of Tsai

Harvard Pop Center faculty member Alexander Tsai, MD, PhD, is an author of an article that reports finding social distancing to be associated with a decrease  of 3,090 cases at 7 days, and 68,255 cases at 14 days, after these measures were implemented. Other authors of the article include Mark J. Siedner, Guy Harling, Zahra Reynolds, Rebecca F. Gilbert, and Atheendar Venkataramani.

Is there a link between opioid overdose mortality rates and automobile assembly plant closures in the U.S.?

Assembly workers work on a Chrysler car at a Michigan plant.

Researchers affiliated with the Harvard Pop Center have published a study that focuses on counties with a large share of the population employed in the manufacturing sector, finding a link between automobile assembly plant closures and deaths by opioid overdose among working-age adults. Study authors include faculty member (and former Harvard RWJF scholar) Alexander Tsai, MD, PhD, and Rourke O’Brien, PhD, also a former Harvard RWJF scholar. Other study authors…

Affirmative action bans linked to increased smoking among minority students in their teens (and beyond)

lit cigarette

Affirmative action bans may do more damage to minority students than just negatively impact their educational and socioeconomic opportunities; a study has linked these bans with an increase in health risk behaviors, such as smoking, among those in the 11th and 12th grade. Authors include Harvard RWJF Health & Society Scholars program alumni Rourke O’Brien and Alexander Tsai (who is also a Harvard Pop Center faculty member) as well as…

Despite ART rapidly scaling up, level of knowledge of HIV among general population in sub-Saharan Africa has not

Alexander Tsai, MD, PhD, is co-author of a study published in the Journal of the International AIDS Society that indicates that has been a minimal increase in HIV knowledge across 33 sub-Saharan African countries over time, despite rapid antiretroviral therapy scale-up.

Study finds police killings of unarmed black Americans negatively impact mental health of black Americans in general population

Faculty members Alex Tsai and David R. Williams are among the authors on a study in The Lancet that utilizes novel data on police killings of black Americans to reveal the spillover effects on those living in the same state. Learn more in The New York Times and on the study website.

A call to unite & act as health care & public health professionals face potential public health crisis if DACA is terminated

Harvard Pop Center faculty member and RWJF Health & Society Scholar program alum Alexander Tsai, MD, PhD, has co-authored an editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine. Read more in Medical Xpress.

Increase in HIV stigma linked to decreased use of skilled childbirth facilities in Uganda

Alexander Tsai, PhD, MD, a former RWJF Health & Society Scholar at Harvard, and currently a member of the Harvard Pop Center faculty, is co-author on a study published in Aids and Behavior that suggests that reducing the stigma of HIV could help to reduce maternal mortality and prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.