Homelessness ‘undermining the very fabric of our society’
A sharp uptick in homelessness in the U.S.—driven by high rents, shrinking public assistance, a lack of affordable housing, and fallout from the COVID pandemic—represents “a hard and complicated public health issue,” according to Harvard Chan School’s Howard…
Addressing the U.S. homelessness crisis
At a recent virtual event co-sponsored by Harvard Chan School’s Initiative on Health and Homelessness, experts shared the latest statistics on homelessness and discussed approaches to tackling the complex issue.
U.S. men die nearly six years before women, as life expectancy gap widens
New research from Harvard Chan School and UC San Francisco shows that the life expectancy of American women is now 5.8 years longer than that of American men—a trend researchers say is driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and…
Orientation 2023: Harvard Chan School welcomes new students
A new crop of Harvard Chan School students got their official welcome to the School when Orientation kicked off on August 21.
High schoolers learn climate action strategies at youth summit
Eighty-five high school students from the U.S. and beyond learned about climate change from a variety of perspectives—and got ideas on how to tackle the climate crisis in their own communities and beyond—at an annual youth summit held…
Addressing life expectancy decline driven by COVID-19, opioid crisis
Experts at the 7th Cutter Symposium discussed how epidemics such as COVID-19 and the opioid crisis are shortening the human lifespan, and health policies that can help mitigate the problem.
Complexities of homelessness explored at ‘deep dive’ event
Many facets related to the problem of homelessness—including its prevalence, causes, relationship to health, and ways to respond—were on the agenda at a two-day conference at Harvard University in late March.
Opinion: The benefits of banning flavored tobacco
A proposal to ban the sale of menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products in New York “can help create the first tobacco-free generation and save lives for decades to come, especially among Black New Yorkers,” according to…
U.S. governmental public health workforce shrank by half in five years, study finds
Nearly half of all employees in state and local public health agencies in the U.S. left their jobs between 2017 and 2021, and if such workforce contractions continue, more than 100,000 public health staff could leave their jobs…
Opinion: Tobacco industry’s ‘harm reduction’ pledges ring false
Publicly, the tobacco industry endorses harm reduction—a strategy aimed at reducing risks for people who use their products. But the reality, according to an opinion piece in STAT, is that the industry continues to oppose policies aimed at…
