Previous FXB Center Media Clips

December 2022

The medical system has failed Black Americans for centuries. Could reparations be the answer? (Brittney Francis quoted, Vox, December 30, 2022)

It is time to address anti-Roma discrimination in the US (Margareta Matache authored, Al Jazeera, December 30, 2022)

As a Researcher, I Study the Health of Palestinians. It’s Time to Pay Attention. (Yara M. Asi authored, The New York Times, December 29, 2022)

Universal Healthcare Foundation Forum Explores Racism In Healthcare & Race-Conscious Interventions (Bram Wispelwey quoted, EIN News, December 7, 2022)

Ideas conversation: Has public health gotten too political? (Natalia Linos interviewed, The Boston Globe, December 6, 2022)

November 2022

Raising health care’s climate voice (Caleb Dresser, Kimberly Humphrey, and Tess Wiskel quoted, The Harvard Gazette, November 28, 2022)

Doctors ‘hopeful’ that COP 27 took health seriously (Caleb Dresser, Kimberly Humphrey, and Tess Wiskel quoted, POLITICO Pro, November 23, 2022)

Physicians Push for More Action on Fossil Fuel Reduction After COP27 (Caleb Dresser, Kimberly Humphrey, and Tess Wiskel quoted, MedPage Today, November 23, 2022)

Ten Lessons from COVID: A Round-up of Experts (Satchit Balsari quoted, PLOS DNA Science Blog, November 17, 2022)

Redressing the racial health gap (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Harvard Public Health, November 15, 2022)

Lifting universal masking in schools associated with new Covid-19 cases (Tori Cowger quoted, News Medical, November 14, 2022)

Maintaining masking requirements at Boston Public Schools protected students, staff (Tori Cowger quoted, Mirage.News, November 11, 2022)

Masks Cut Covid Spread in Schools, Study Finds (Tori Cowger quoted, The New York Times, November 10, 2022)

COVID: Fewer cases in schools with mask rules, study says (Tori Cowger quoted, Eminetracanada.com, November 9, 2022)

Universal Masking in School Works. New Data Shows How Well (Tori Cowger quoted, TIME, November 9, 2022)

Healing ARC Newsletter Provides Updates on Efforts to Eliminate Structural Racism In Medicine & Patient Care (Bram Wispelwey quoted, EIN News, November 7, 2022)

SA researcher makes top 100 LBGTQI+ influencer list for monkeypox work (Keletso Makofane quoted, Sunday Times, November 6, 2022)

From plateau to pendulum: COVID hospitalizations down, wastewater levels fluctuate (Keletso Makofane quoted, Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) News, November 5, 2022)

New tools for preventing the next pandemic (Satchit Balsari quoted, The Harvard Gazette, November 4, 2022)

How Accessible is Health Care for Immigrants & Refugees in Greater Boston? A Qualitative Approach to What is Working and Not Working in Healthcare Access for a Marginalized Population (Margaret Sullivan authored, Northeastern University Partnership for Immigrants’ Rights Highlighted Research, November 4, 2022)

Harvard symposium seeks to answer: Can reparations close the racial health gap? (Brittney Butler, Natalia Linos, Marie Plaisime mentioned, The Boston Globe, November 3, 2022)

An Interview With CFD Advisory Board Member Margareta Matache (Margareta Matache interviewed, Boston University Center on Forced Displacement News, November 2, 2022)

Where the U.S. now stands with monkeypox and how we got here (Keletso Makofane quoted, APM Research Lab: Points of Reference, November 2, 2022)

October 2022

Our Monkeypox Response Has Failed to Use Lessons Learned From HIV and COVID-19 (Keletso Makofane quoted, TheBody, October 26, 2022)

Israel and the Palestinian ‘womb’: Racism by numbers rears its ugly head (Osama Tanous authored, Middle East Eye, October 25, 2022)

NYC Health Dept. Leverages Health Equity Framework to Combat Disparities (Bram Wispelwey quoted, HealthITAnalytics, October 20, 2022)

Healing ARC Framework Applied To NYC Analysis Of Racism In Clinical Algorithms Impacting Patient Care And Treatment (Bram Wispelwey quoted, EIN News, October 18, 2022)

Black Americans’ poor health outcomes is proof of wildly overdue unpaid tab for slavery (Mary T. Bassett authored, The Emancipator, October 4, 2022)

September 2022

Public Trust Is a Political Problem—Not Just an Epistemic One (Bram Wispelwey quoted, Boston Review, September 30, 2022)

‘Battle with your stomach’: For Palestinian prisoners, hunger is the weapon of choice (Yara Asi authored, The New Arab, September 23, 2022)

The Inflated Promise of Science Education (Bram Wispelwey quoted, Boston Review, September 6, 2022)

Harms and Biases Associated with the Social Determinants of Health Technology Movement (Artair Rogers authored, Petrie-Flom Blog, September 2, 2022)

A Pox By Any Other Name (Keletso Makofane quoted, City Journal, September 1, 2022)

August 2022

Mere paas app hai: Four months later, how good is Aarogya Setu? (Satchit Balsari quoted, National Herald India, August 29, 2022)

If fall brings COVID surge, when should schools mandate masks, require testing? Coalition wants prevention plan in place (Tori Cowger and Lara Jirmanus quoted, MassLive, August 23, 2022)

At 75 India needs to make health a habit: We must reorient public healthcare investments and create healthy, livable cities (Satchit Balsari authored, The Times of India, August 23, 2022)

Coalition wants COVID prevention plan for fall in Massachusetts schools (Tori Cowger and Lara Jirmanus quoted, The Berkshire Eagle, August 22, 2022)

Gujarat Covid death undercount ‘proof’ (Satchit Balsari quoted, The Telegraph, August 22, 2022)

Health professionals warn COVID poised to take off in fall (Tori Cowger quoted, Boston25 News, August 22, 2022)

‘Another kind of homophobia:’ Critics say King County’s monkeypox vaccine criteria are intrusive (Keletso Makofane quoted, NPR, August 17, 2022)

Why Every Body Counts (Satchit Balsari, Caroline Buckee, and Jennifer Leaning co-authored, PLOS Global Public Health Blog, August 16, 2022)

FXB de Harvard y Proyecto N95 entregaron 34 mil mascarillas a La Colaborativa (FXB Center mentioned, Natalia Linos quoted, El Planeta, August 15, 2023)

Centro FXB de Harvard e Projeto N95 distribuem 70.000 máscaras de alta filtragem para comunidades em Massachusetts (FXB Center mentioned, Natalia Linos quoted, Brazilian Times, August 15, 2023)

New study based on Mass. schools finds masks protected students, staff from Covid-19 (Tori Cowger quoted, The Boston Globe, August 10, 2022)

Monkeypox is rousing old fears — and ways gay men care for each other (Keletso Makofane quoted, Washington Post, August 2, 2022)

July 2022

How Hot Is Too Hot to Exercise? (Caleb Dresser quoted, Outside Magazine, July 26, 2022)

Biden’s hospital aid to Palestinians puts a band-aid on a bullet wound (Osama Tanous and Yara Asi co-authored, Middle East Eye, July 26, 2022)

Hospitals feel the heat as climate change bakes Boston (Caleb Dresser quoted, Boston Globe, July 22, 2022)

A vax-only approach leaves the most vulnerable behind (Justin Feldman quoted, Source New Mexico, July 20, 2022)

Study finds 2,800 Massachusetts deaths in 2019 connected to air pollution (Caleb Dresser quoted, Boston Globe, July 18, 2022)

U.S. Monkeypox Response Has Been Woefully Inadequate, Experts Say (Keletso Makofane quoted, Scientific American, July 14, 2022)

A Call for Antiracist Action (Bram Wispelwey mentioned, New England Journal of Medicine, July 7, 2022)

June 2022

Monkeypox outbreak in U.S. is bigger than the CDC reports. Testing is ‘abysmal’ (Keletso Makofane quoted, NPR, June 25, 2022)

Problems with monkeypox testing mean the outbreak may be far bigger than reported (Keletso Makofane quoted, NPR, June 23, 2022)

When hospitals become battlefields (Osama Tanous co-authored, +972 Magazine, June 7, 2022)

May 2022

To Fight Monkeypox, Remember the Lessons of Covid and H.I.V. (Keletso Makofane co-authored, New York Times, May 29, 2022)

10 teams tackle climate change (Satchit Balsari, Caroline Buckee, and Jennifer Leaning mentioned, Harvard Gazette, May 18, 2022)

April 2022

Experts disagree with WHO’s April report, say under-reporting of COVID deaths in India not deliberate (Satchit Balsari quoted, News 9, April 18, 2022)

Seven days, 18,000 deaths: A look at omicron’s deadliest week (Justin Feldman quoted, NBC News, April 7, 2022)

Black mothers die at higher rates. Florida’s ‘Stop WOKE Act’ could make that worse. (Brittney Butler authored, Miami Herald, April 7, 2022)

Critics Say Broward’s Joint Police and Medical Examiner Center is a Conflict of Interest (Justin Feldman quoted, Broward Palm Beach New Times News, April 7, 2022)

What Russia’s invasion of Ukraine means for the world (Jacqueline Bhabha quoted, MIT News, April 5, 2022)

March 2022

Ukraine: The Refugee Double Standard (Margareta Matache co-authored, Foreign Policy in Focus, March 15, 2022)

From Ukraine to Afghanistan, not all child refugees are treated equally (Jacqueline Bhabha quoted, WGBH, March 10, 2022)

An invasive species now has a new name to replace ethnic slur (Margareta Matache quoted, CNN, March 4, 2022)

A medical school in the service of colonialism (Osama Tanous quoted, +972 Magazine, March 3, 2022)

February 2022

It’s too soon to lift the school-mask mandate (Natalia Linos authored, The Boston Globe, February 11, 2022)

Racial bias is an endemic crisis. Here’s how to solve it. (Marie Plaisime authored, Harvard Public Health Magazine, Winter 2022)

January 2022

Harvard is coming to Athens (Jacqueline Bhabha quoted, Kathimerini, January 28, 2022)

Greece: new Refugee and Migration Studies Hub launched (FXB Center mentioned, ANSAmed, January 21, 2022)

Harvard and Athens Universities Launch Research Collaboration (FXB Center mentioned, Greek Reporter, January 20, 2022)

Athens, Harvard universities launch joint research on migration (FXB Center mentioned, Kathimerini, January 17, 2022)

A year in, how has Biden done on pandemic response? (Justin Feldman, Medium, January 5, 2022)

Massachusetts’ biggest climate wins and losses of 2021 (Gaurab Basu quoted, The Boston Globe, January 2, 2022)

December 2021

America Quits the Fight Against Covid (Justin Feldman quoted, The New Republic, December 31, 2021)

How The Koch Network Hijacked The War On COVID (Justin Feldman quoted, The Daily Poster, December 22, 2021)

Study: If people of color had the COVID death rate of college-educated whites, 89% fewer would have died in 2020 (Justin Feldman quoted, Boston.com, December 17, 2021)

Why we’re telling the story of slavery (Margareta Matache, DOR, December 16, 2021)

The Hidden History of Our Roma Ancestors (Margareta Matache, DOR, December 15, 2021)

Making the case for reparations (Natalia Linos, Jacqueline Bhabha and Margareta Matache quoted, Harvard Chan News, December 14, 2021)

November 2021

Study challenges concern of e-cigarette use in high school students (Justin Feldman quoted, The Brown Daily Herald, November 14, 2021)

Boston authorities clearing homeless encampment despite protests by ACLU, public health experts (FXB Center mentioned, World Socialist Web Site, November 14, 2021)

Massachusetts ACLU sues Boston for clearing tents at Mass/Cass (Natalia Linos and Margaret Sullivan quoted, The Daily Free Press, November 12, 2021)

Brookline forum to focus on LGBTQ+ youth (Natalia Linos mentioned, The Boston Globe, November 9, 2021)

Public health coalition urges Mayor-Elect Michelle Wu to halt city’s encampment protocols at Mass. and Cass (FXB Center mentioned, Boston.com, November 3, 2021)

October 2021

Experts protest dispersal of Mass. and Cass tents, call for public health approach (Natalia Linos quoted, The Boston Globe, October 27, 2021)

How Public Health Took Part in Its Own Downfall (Mary T. Bassett quoted, The Atlantic, October 23, 2021)

Here’s what doulas do, and how they’re fighting for Black maternal health (Brittney Butler quoted, The Boston Globe Magazine, October 13, 2021)

September 2021

COVID Paid Sick Leave Is Expiring. Corporate Dems are Stonewalling. (Justin Feldman quoted, Jacobin Magazine, September 30, 2021)

New study of police killings confirms what activists have said for years (Justin Feldman quoted, Mashable, September 30, 2021)

Gov. Hochul chooses Mary Bassett to lead N.Y.’s health department (Mary T. Bassett quoted, The New York Times, September 29, 2021)

Symposium encourages ‘anti-racism’ focus for public health (Mary T. Bassett and Natalia Linos quoted, Harvard Chan News, September 29, 2021)

We’re Already Barreling Toward the Next Pandemic (Mary T. Bassett quoted, The Atlantic, September 29, 2021)

All the Ways That “1 in 5,000 per Day” Breakthrough Infection Stat Is Nonsense (Justin Feldman, Slate Magazine, September 25, 2021)

Harvard School of Public Health Launches New Structural Racism and Health Initiative (Natalia Linos quoted, Harvard Crimson, September 21, 2021)

Harvard Experts Outline Critical Steps for School Reopenings at HGSE Event (Natalia Linos quoted, Harvard Crimson, September 15, 2021)

The Radical Honesty of Biden’s Vaccine Plan (Justin Feldman quoted, The New Republic, September 10, 2021)

August 2021

Biden is trying to appease conservatives — not protecting public health — by keeping a Trump-era immigration policy in place during the pandemic, a Harvard expert argues (Jacqueline Bhabha quoted, Insider, August 9, 2021)

July 2021

The best vaccine incentive might be paid time off (Justin Feldman quoted, MIT Technology Review, July 29, 2021)

Renaming a moth to avoid an ethnic slur (Margareta Matache quoted, Harvard Chan News, July 22, 2021)

Life expectancy in US drops dramatically due to COVID-19 pandemic (Mary T. Bassett quoted, CNN, July 22, 2021)

Statement from Public Health Experts on Announcement of Opioid Settlement (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Newswise, July 21, 2021)

These Moths Will Be Renamed to Stop Use of an Ethnic Slur (Margareta Matache quoted, Smithsonian Magazine, July 12, 2021)

An invasive species has an ethnic slur in its common name. Entomologists are changing that (Margareta Matache quoted, CNN, July 12, 2021)

Scientists are renaming the ‘gypsy moth’ as part of broader push to root out offensive monikers (Margareta Matache quoted, The Washington Post, July 11, 2021)

New consortium aims to improve COVID-19 response in South Asia (Satchit Balsari quoted, Harvard Chan News, July 7, 2021)

June 2021

Hard lessons in the midst of hope (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Harvard Public Health Magazine, June 30, 2021)

Commentary: It’s Time For Boston To Pay Reparations (Matlin Gilman and Mary T. Bassett, Cognoscenti, June 18, 2021)

Congresswoman Cori Bush Voices Groundbreaking Support for Safe Supply (Mary T. Bassett mentioned, Filter Magazine, June 16, 2021)

Health consequences of discriminatory housing policy (Mary T. Bassett interviewed, Harvard Chan News, June 11, 2021)

Herd Immunity Is Not a Magical Percentage (Justin Feldman quoted, The New Republic, June 11, 2021)

More Roma citizens of Romania attempting to cross from Mexico into the USA to seek asylum this year (Margareta Matache quoted, ROMEA, June 11, 2021)

Editor of JAMA Leaves After Outcry Over Colleague’s Remarks on Racism (Mary T. Bassett quoted, The New York Times, June 1, 2021)

May 2021

Why Roma migrants from Europe are taking rafts from Mexico to enter the U.S. (Margareta Matache quoted, Reuters, May 26, 2021)

Making It Personal (Jacqueline Bhabha and Vasileia Digidiki mentioned, Harvard Medical School News, May 24, 2021)

Only a little change for migrants at the U.S. border (Jacqueline Bhabha quoted, The Harvard Gazette, May 14, 2021)

CDC’s mask guidance spurs confusion and criticism, as well as celebration (Natalia Linos quoted, The Washington Post, May 14, 2021)

Perspectives: Why a national ban on menthol cigarettes is the right choice (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Harvard Chan News, May 12, 2021)

How History Books and Monuments Shape our National Narrative, Preparing for the Next Pandemic, and Practical Advice on Staying Safe During Police Encounters (Mary T. Bassett interviewed, Our Body Politic, May 7, 2021)

We’re better off with health equity (Mary T. Bassett interviewed, Better Off, May 5, 2021)

Why Police Won’t Confront Their Deadliest Danger (Justin Feldman quoted, Slate, May 6, 2021)

April 2021

Prioritizing equity in all policies: What we learn from vaccine disparities (Mary T. Bassett mentioned, USA Today, April 30, 2021)

Despite the Pandemic, Some Romani-Americans are Building Community and Celebrating Their Identity (Margareta Matache quoted, Pulitzer Center, April 29, 2021)

Inequality’s deadly toll (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Nature, April 28, 2021)

‘Very strong degree of normality’ likely by year’s end (Mary T. Bassett quoted, The Harvard Gazette, April 27, 2021)

A Year in the Life of a Pandemic (Joan Lombardi co-authored, Medium, April 27, 2021)

Explained: Magical thinking won’t help us fight Covid-19, masks and social distancing will (Satchit Balsari, The Indian Express, April 22, 2021)

Exclusive: NY1/Ipsos poll finds 1 in 4 New Yorkers are unsure of, or have no plans to get, COVID-19 vaccine (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Spectrum News NY1, April 20, 2021)

Bring Covid Vaccines Door-to-Door (Justin Feldman quoted, The New Republic, April 16, 2021)

CDC Declares Racism A Public Health Threat (Mary T. Bassett interviewed, NPR’s All Things Considered, April 8, 2021)

March 2021

Where are the Safe Injection Facilities Cuomo Promised for New York? (Mary T. Bassett quoted, New York Focus, March 30, 2021)

Dapper Dan on Community, COVID-19, and the Importance of Getting Vaccinated (Mary T. Bassett mentioned, Vogue Magazine, March 15, 2021)

They were hailed as heroes. But food store workers still await vaccine eligibility (Justin Feldman quoted, The Enterprise, March 11, 2021)

How references to structural racism got cut from a Md. bill on health disparities (Natalia Linos quoted, The Washington Post, March 2, 2021)

February 2021

With Free Medical Clinics and Patient Advocacy, the Black Panthers Created a Legacy in Community Health That Still Exists Amid COVID-19 (Mary T. Bassett quoted, TIME Magazine, February 25, 2021)

AHA News: Black Health Activists Gain Momentum From Pandemic and Build on History (Mary T. Bassett, HealthDay, February 17, 2021)

Lancet Report: 40% of U.S. COVID Deaths Were Preventable. The Country Needs Universal Healthcare Now (Mary T. Bassett interviewed, Democracy Now!, February 15, 2021)

US could have averted 40% of Covid deaths, says panel examining Trump’s policies (Mary T. Bassett quoted, The Guardian, February 11, 2021)

Breaking Barriers: Harvard Medical School Students Connect Minority Communities with Care (Margaret Sullivan quoted, Medical Bag, February 9, 2021)

Opinion: 60 Black Health Experts Urge Black Americans to Get Vaccinated (Mary T. Bassett signed, The New York Times, February 7, 2021)

Going Back to School During COVID-19 Is a Struggle for Students, Teachers, and Parents (Justin Feldman quoted, Teen Vogue, February 5, 2021)

Meaning of vaccine rules keeps shifting at NC prisons (Natalia Linos quoted, Carolina Public Press, February 4, 2021)

Those Most Likely to Get Covid Are Last in Line for Vaccines (Natalia Linos quoted, WIRED, February 2, 2021)

Opinion: How New York’s Vaccine Program Missed Black and Hispanic Residents (Mary T. Bassett quoted, The New York Times, February 1, 2021)

January 2021

Building trust in COVID-19 vaccines is key to controlling the pandemic. Here’s why some are hesitant (Mary T. Bassett quoted, PBS News Hour, January 28, 2021)

Coronavirus: Vaccine hesitancy among ethnic minority groups (Mary T. Bassett interviewed, BBC World Service, January 28, 2021)

Natalia Linos Speaks about the Events at the Capitol, Elections, and Her Own Future (Natalia Linos quoted, The National Herald, January 23, 2021)

Opinion: Coronavirus Is an Occupational Disease That Spreads at Work (Justin Feldman, Jacobin, January 19, 2021)

Opinion: Why is discrimination against American Roma ignored? (Margareta Matache and Jacqueline Bhabha, OpenDemocracy, January 13, 2021)

Care for Undocumented Immigrants (Margaret Sullivan quoted, Harvard Medical School News, January 13, 2021)

December 2020

Opinion: Physicians may once again have the ear of their communities. To sustain this regained trust, we need to introspect (Satchit Balsari, The Indian Express, December 31, 2020)

Opinion: Romani Americans still struggle with discrimination (Margareta Matache and Mary T. Bassett, Al Jazeera, December 20, 2020)

Perspectives: Why incarcerated people should be prioritized for COVID-19 vaccination (Natalia Linos quoted, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health News, December 18, 2020)

With few COVID-19 restrictions, personal responsibility takes center stage in the pandemic response (Mary T. Bassett quoted, The Boston Globe, December 7, 2020)

Racism Within Communities Predicts Worse COVID-19 Outcomes for Black Americans, Study Shows (Natalia Linos quoted, Everyday Health, December 1, 2020)

November 2020

Op-Ed:  Who will follow Oregon’s lead on drugs? (Mary T. Bassett, New York Daily News, November 16, 2020)

Mayor Keisha L. Bottoms Discusses Atlanta’s COVID-19 Response in HSPH Webinar (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Harvard Crimson, November 10, 2020)

Natalia Linos on COVID-19 in the Commonwealth (Natalia Linos interviewed, 1420 WBSM Radio, November 9, 2020)

Atlanta Mayor Discusses Leadership Amid COVID-19 (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, November 9, 2020)

Some experts propose reparations as solution for decades of racial health inequities (Mary T. Bassett quoted, ABC News, November 6, 2020)

October 2020

Americans go to the polls as US suffers worst week for coronavirus infections (Natalia Linos quoted, The Guardian, October 31, 2020)

Historically, ‘Radical’ Groups Have Often Positively Impacted the State of Wellness and Health in the U.S. (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Well + Good, October 29, 2020)

NY Early Voting; Mussolini and Lessons Learned; COVID’s Disparate Impacts; Meet the Candidates: NY 2nd Congressional District (Mary T. Bassett interviewed, WNYC, October 28, 2020)

Studies show disparate death rates from COVID-19 linked to both poverty and race (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, October 2020)

Already used to track mobility cellphones eyed for contact tracing, too (Satchit Balsari quoted, WCVB 5ABC, October 26, 2020)

COVID-19 Hit Mass. Nursing Homes Hard — Especially Those Serving People Of Color (Mary T. Bassett quoted, WBUR, October 23, 2020)

Will Rising Coronavirus Cases Mean Another Shutdown in Massachusetts? (Natalia Linos quoted, NBC 10 Boston, October 19, 2020)

As cases rise again, second thoughts on another lockdown (Natalia Linos quoted, The Boston Globe, October 17, 2020)

Why Coroners Often Blame Police Killings on a Made-Up Medical Condition (Justin Feldman interviewed, Mother Jones, October 14, 2020)

Trump and COVID-19: Where Does Public Health Go From Here? (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Spectrum News, October 7, 2020)

As Mass. COVID-19 metrics rise, state officials avoid defining how bad is too bad (Natalia Linos quoted, The Boston Globe, October 6, 2020)

Let’s hope Trump’s health crisis sparks him to do more to fight COVID-19 (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Chicago Sun Times, October 5, 2020)

Opinion: It is time reparations are paid for Roma slavery (Margareta Matache, Al Jazeera, October 5, 2020)

An Expert Explains: Why you must mask up, now (Satchit Balsari, The Indian Express, October 5, 2020)

Biden’s Debate Comments Just Scratched the Surface of COVID-19’s Toll on Black Americans (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Mother Jones, October 1, 2020)

Up to 129,000 immigrants in Massachusetts could shy away from MassHealth over fear of public charge rule, report suggests (Margaret Sullivan co-authored report discussed, MassLive, October 1)

September 2020

Deadly Parallels (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Harvard Public Health Magazine, Fall 2020 issue)

One Family, Three Months, Four Dead: For Latinos, COVID-19 Scars Remain (Natalia Linos quoted, Phoenix New Times, September 29, 2020)

COVID-19 is political, so scientists should be too (Natalia Linos, The Boston Globe, September 25, 2020)

Louisville Police Take Down Inmate Lookup Site Amid Mass Arrest of Protesters (Justin Feldman quoted, Gizmodo, September 25, 2020)

Centering Racial Justice in Policy: One Town at a Time (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Nonprofit Quarterly, September 23, 2020)

Yes, Transit and Dense Urban Places Are Safe – Even In a Pandemic (Mary T. Bassett quoted, StreetsblogMASS, September 18, 2020)

Researchers Detail Challenges of Determining Coronavirus Mortality (Satchit Balsari quoted, HealthLeaders, September 18, 2020)

‘When Black women walk, things change’: For a group in Franklin Park, exercise is justice (Mary T. Bassett quoted, The Boston Globe, September 15, 2020)

Who’ll Stop the Rain? (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Harvard Medicine Magazine, September 15, 2020)

Opinion: To tobacco companies, Black lives don’t matter (Sandra Mullin and Mary T. Bassett, The Hill’s Changing America, September 15, 2020)

Calls to declare racism a public health crisis grow louder amid pandemic, police brutality (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Washington Post, September 15, 2020)

Counts Based on Death Certificates Underestimate COVID-19 Mortality Rates (Satchit Balsari referenced, SciTech Daily, September 11, 2020)

August 2020

Fighting Structural Inequality (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Diversity In Action, September/October issue)

Philadelphia-Based Urban Farmers Working To Preserve History, Feed Vulnerable (Ashley Gripper interviewed, CBS Philly August 20, 2020)

The CDC Just Warned Who’s Hit Hardest by Outbreaks at Work (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Yahoo! News, August 17, 2020)

A digital push for healthcare: Portability of data will cut costs, save time (Satchit Balsari, The Indian Express, August 14, 2020)

July 2020

American Catastrophe: How Did We Get Here? (Mary T. Bassett interviewed, 20/20, July 29, 2020)

‘American Catastrophe: How Did We Get Here?’: 5 key takeaways (Mary T. Bassett quoted, ABC News, July 28, 2020)

Trump’s fragmented pandemic response may undermine push to address racial disparities (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Politico, July 25, 2020)

Europe shows a Janus face to migrants (Jacqueline Bhabha, Financial Times, July 20, 2020)

Do We Need to Reform Death Investigation in the U.S.? (Justin Feldman, WNYC, July 14, 2020)

Trump gave up on fighting the virus. Now we’re paying for his laziness. (Mary T. Bassett and Natalia Linos, The Washington Post, July 14, 2020)

Explained: What works (and does not) in Covid-19 treatment. (Dr. Satchit Balsari and Dr. Zarir Udwadia, The Indian Express, July 13, 2020)

Are Protests Unsafe?  What Experts Say May Depend on Who’s Protesting What. (Mary T. Bassett quoted, The New York Times, July 6, 2020)

The Fullest Look Yet at the Racial Inequity of Coronavirus. (Mary T. Bassett quoted, The New York Times, July 5, 2020)

What to do if you are infected: demystifying Covid-19 care. (Satchit Balsari quoted, The Indian Express, July 5, 2020)

Independence Day in the pandemic. (Natalia Linos quoted, Boston25 News, July 4, 2020)

Are we really ‘all in this together’? Coronavirus taking an unequal toll on minorities. (Mary T. Bassett quoted, ABC News, July 1, 2020)

Championing human rights amid disease and discrimination. (Jacqueline Bhabha interviewed, HKS Policycast, July 1, 2020)

June 2020

Staggering new statistics shed light on disproportionate police violence towards Black people. (Jaquelyn Jahn and Gabriel Schwartz quoted, FOX32 Chicago, June 29, 2020)

Europe’s buried history of racism and slavery (Margareta Matache, Politico, June 29, 2020)

‘Extreme inequality was the preexisting condition’: How COVID-19 widened America’s wealth gap.  (Mary T. Bassett quoted, ABC News Daily, June 26, 2020)

Officials Seek to Shift Resources Away from Policing to Address Black ‘Public Health Crisis’. (Natalia Linos quoted, California Healthline, June 24, 2020)

Finding COVID clues in movement (Satchit Balsari quoted, Harvard Gazette, June 23, 2020)

The US badly needs a wake-up call on the coronavirus pandemic (On Mary T. Bassett’s coauthored working paper, Vox, June 23, 2020)

Opinion: Supreme Court’s ‘Dreamers’ decision just a first step (Jacqueline Bhabha, Financial Times, June 22, 2020)

Racism’s plague on public health (Mary T. Bassett quoted, The Hill, June 22, 2020)

Systemic Racism Is Social Dynamite (Mary T. Bassett and Rev. Dr. William Barber II, The Nation, June 19, 2020)

‘So much worse than I ever thought it would be’: Virus cases skyrocketing among Latinos (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Politico June 18, 2020)

Critical Considerations Required for COVID-19 Data Analysis (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Health IT Analytics, June 15, 2020)

Protests in the US seen by those who took to the streets (published in Romanian) (Margareta Matache quoted, Scena9, June 15, 2020)

‘Long overdue’: lawmakers declare racism a public health emergency (Mary T. Bassett quoted, The Guardian, June 12, 2020)

Mayor Walsh declares racism a public health crisis in Boston, will seek to transfer 20% of police overtime budget to social services (Mary T. Bassett quoted, The Boston Globe, June 12, 2020)

Black clergy convene to discuss the toll of COVID-19 and a way forward (Mary T. Bassett quoted, The Philadelphia Tribune Gazette, June 11, 2020)

After the protest … what next? (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Harvard Gazette, June 11, 2020)

WBUR Town Hall RECAP: The Racial Inequities Revealed By COVID-19 (Mary T. Bassett quoted, WBUR, June 9, 2020)

People of color are protesting. A Harvard public health expert is concerned about their health and COVID-19. (Natalia Linos quoted, Boston.com, June 8, 2020)

How to address racism like the public health crisis it is (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Quartz, June 6, 2020)

Coronavirus kills black people at twice the rate as white people: Here’s what we can do about it (Mary T. Bassett interviewed, Los Angeles Times, June 5, 2020)

The Places You’re Least Likely to Get COVID-19 (Natalia Linos quoted, Healthline, June 5, 2020)

Racism is a deadly virus, too: A public health defense of these mass protests (Mary T. Bassett, Caroline Buckee, and Nancy Krieger, New York Daily News, June 5, 2020)

Child Repatriation in the Time of COVID-19 (Jacqueline Bhabha and Vasileia Digidiki, Rethinking Refuge, June 4, 2020)

Disrupting violence at home (Ratna Gill and Suparna Gupta, India Development Review, June 3, 2020)

Opinion: Anti-Roma hatred on streets of Budapest (Jacqueline Bhabha and Margareta Matache, EU Observer, June 3, 2020)

Coronavirus (COVID-19): Press Conference with Natalia Linos (Natalia Linos, Harvard Chan: This Week in Health, June 2, 2020)

May 2020

Opinion | The surveillance India actually needs to quell the virus (Satchit Balsari co-authored, Mint, May 28, 2020)

We don’t farm because it’s trendy; we farm as resistance, for healing and sovereignty (FXB Doctoral Cohort Member Ashley Gripper, Environmental Health News, May 27, 2020)

World health leaders urge green recovery from coronavirus crisis (FXB Center signed open letter, The Guardian, May 26, 2020)

‘We’re expendable’: black Americans pay the price as states lift lockdowns (Mary T. Bassett quoted, The Guardian, May 25, 2020)

How to End COVID-19 and Other Pandemics With a Human Rights and Health Justice Approach (Natalia Linos interviewed, TheBodyPro, May 21, 2020)

COVID-19 outbreak exposes generations-old racial and economic divide in New York City (Mary T. Bassett interviewed, ABC Nightline, May 20, 2020)

So you really want to see your friends? Here’s how to assess the risk (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Los Angeles Times, May 16, 2020)

Racial Disparities in Treating (And Policing) Covid-19 (Mary T. Bassett interviewed, The Brian Lehrer Show, May 13, 2020)

Mid-coronavirus pandemic, a return to normal is a failure (Natalia Linos quoted, The Boston Globe, May 12, 2020)

How COVID-19 is exposing — and widening — cracks in the US health system (Mary T. Bassett quoted, ABC News, May 8, 2020)

Which Covid-19 Data Can You Trust? (Satchit Balsari co-author, Harvard Business Review, May 8, 2020)

April 2020

Opinion: Public Health Calls for Solidarity, Not Warfare (Natalia Linos and Mary T. Bassett, Foreign Affairs, April 30, 2020)

The Pandemic’s Unequal Toll (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Harvard Magazine, April 29, 2020)

Opinion: The urgent need to transfer vulnerable migrants from Europe’s largest migrant hotspot (Jacqueline Bhabha and Vasileia Digidiki, British Medical Journal, April 24, 2020)

Not Just How, But Who: Tracing the Indirect Deaths Caused by Covid-19 (Satchit Balsari quoted, Direct Relief Blog, April 23, 2020)

Depiction Of Roma As Crows Exposes Deeper Racism Within Romania (Margareta Matache quoted, Radio Free Europe, April 16, 2020)

Editorial: How to Save Black and Hispanic Lives in a Pandemic (Mary T. Bassett quoted, The New York Times, April 11, 2020)

Racial Disparities, No Surprise, Now What? (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Spectrum News, April 9, 2020)

Viewpoint: Anti-Roma Racism is Spiraling During COVID-19 Pandemic (Margareta Matache and Jacqueline Bhabha, Health and Human Rights Journal blog, April 7, 2020)

5 Reasons COVID-19 Will Impact the Fight to End Extreme Poverty (Natalia Linos, Global Citizen Today, April 7, 2020)

Podcast: The Roma (Margareta Matache interviewed, Helsinki on the Hill, April 7, 2020)

In prisons, a looming coronavirus crisis (Mary T. Bassett quoted, The Harvard Gazette, April 2, 2020)

March 2020

White Supremacy and the Health of Populations (Mary T. Bassett interviewed, Public Health Podcast, March 30, 2020)

Opinion: COVID-19: Finding Comfort in Respecting Rights and Protecting the Most Vulnerable (Natalia Linos, Health and Human Rights Journal Blog and Op-Ed in Kathimerini, March 30, 2020)

Letter: Aggregated mobility data could help fight COVID-19 (Satchit Balsari co-author, Science Magazine, March 24, 2020)

Will Inequality Worsen the Toll of the Pandemic in the U.S.? (Mary T. Bassett quoted, The Harvard Gazette, March 24, 2020)

Viewpoint: Protecting Children’s Rights As Schools Close (Jacqueline Bhabha, Margaret M. Sullivan, and Mary T. Bassett, Health and Human Rights Journal, March 22, 2020)

The New Coronavirus Affects Us All. But Some Groups May Suffer More. (Mary T. Bassett quoted, Association of American Medical Colleges article, March 18, 2020)

Column: Observations from Spain (Viviendo España) (Sergio Aguayo, Reforma, March 18, 2020)

COVID-19 response complicated by inequities in health insurance, sick leave (Natalia Linos quoted, Marketplace, March 6, 2020)

Op-Ed: The coronavirus could hit the U.S. harder than other wealthy countries (Mary T. Bassett and Natalia Linos, The Washington Post, March 2, 2020)

February 2020

Op-Ed: Greece’s proposed “floating wall” shows the failure of EU migration policies (Vasileia Digidiki and Jacqueline Bhabha, The Guardian, February 7, 2020)

June 2018

FAQs and Answers to Inquiries on Our May 29 NEJM Article Mortality in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria”

In response to the overwhelming media response and inquiries, the authors have prepared this document to answer frequently asked questions (FAQs) and a separate one for inquiries on statistics. These are also available at the data hub for the study’s anonymized data and analysis.

What is the bottom line?

• We estimated that the mortality rate (the number of deaths per 1000 people per unit time) remained high for months after the hurricane. This suggests that people continued to suffer even after the hurricane passed.
• Our data suggests that about one third of those that died after the hurricane died from delayed or interrupted medical care, as reported by the surveyed households.

Read the rest of the FAQs in English.
Read the Preguntas Frecuentes en Espanol.
Read the answers to statistical inquiries.

Media Reports About The Death Toll In Puerto Rico Are Needlessly Confusing

, FiveThirtyEight, June 4

A study released last week by researchers from Harvard had lots of important things to say about life and death in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.  Read more

Why Are the Death Tolls in Puerto Rico From Hurricane Maria So Different?

Sheri Fink, The New York Times, June 2

Widely different estimates of Hurricane Maria’s death toll in Puerto Rico have led to confusion. Here is a guide to the tallies, what accounts for their differences and how a new study aims to provide a more definitive account:  Read more

Hurricane Maria-Related Deaths May Be 70 Times Official Estimate

Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico almost a year ago, but scientists are still trying to unpack the many layers of damage it inflicted on the island.  Read more

Separar els fills dels pares: la nova política de Trump per aterrir els refugiats (Separate the Parents from the Children–in Catalan)

Cristina Mas, Ara, June 1

Quan Miriam G. va decidir fugir d’Hondures per demanar asil polític als Estats Units per a ella i el seu fill de 18 mesos sabia que les coses no serien fàcils. Però el que ni tan sols li havia passat pel cap és que la policia d’immigració se li emportés el nen. Read more

May 2018

Eight months after Hurricane Maria, the human toll is still unclear

The Economist, May 31

MARIA was a brief visitor to Puerto Rico. The category-4 hurricane made landfall at 6am on September 20th last year and 11 hours later she was gone. She left a trail of destruction. Some 300,000 people were displaced; and the death toll? No one knows for sure.      Read more

Puerto Rico’s Hurricane Maria Death Toll Could Exceed 4,000, New Study Estimates

Sheri Fink, The New York Times, May 29

As hurricane season begins this week, experts are still trying to count the number of deaths caused by last year’s devastating Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Read more

Harvard study estimates thousands died in Puerto Rico due to Hurricane Maria

Washington Post, May 29

Miliana Montanez cradled her mother’s head as she lay dying on the floor of her bedroom here, gasping for air and pleading for help. Read more.

Hurricane Maria likely led to deaths of more than 4,600 people, researchers say

CBS News, with reporting in video by David Begnaud

Hurricane Maria, which pummeled Puerto Rico in September 2017, is likely responsible for the deaths of more than 4,600 people — some 70 times higher than official estimates, U.S. researchers said Tuesday.   Read more

The True Scope of the Disaster in Puerto Rico

Vann R. Newkirk II, The Atlantic, May 29

Just about nobody believes Puerto Rico’s official death toll for Hurricane Maria. Researchers and journalists alike generally accept that the island’s tally of 64 people killed by the storm last September is a massive undercount, so obviously inaccurate that the Puerto Rican government has agreed to review and revise its figures. Read more 

April 2018

#Us Too: Children on the Move and Belated Public Attention

Jacqueline Bhabha, International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family

Children on the move are having their #Us Too moment. Over the past months, momentous developments point to a more intense engagement with the needs and rights of refugee and other migration-affected children than has previously been evident. As with #Me too, many of the most central claims – the pervasive presence of abuse, the scale of the problem, the striking power imbalances that have perpetuated the problem’s relative invisibility – are not new or surprising per se. It is the avalanche of evidence, the mobilization of affected constituencies, and the sobering realization of the extent and consequences of previous denial that are disquieting.

In the case of #Us Too, most striking…

Can We Solve the Migration Crisis? (review of Bhabha’s book)

Publishers Weekly, April 2

In her slim but weighty treatise on the nature of “distress migration,” in which people flee “political instability and state failure,” Harvard School of Public Health professor Bhabha passionately argues that developed nations are morally obligated to address the migration spurred by the Syrian Civil War.  Read more

February 2018

Roma and African Americans share a common struggle

The Guardian

Despite the abolition of Roma and African American slavery, criminalization and demonization continues.

An op-ed by Margareta Matache and Cornel West on the solidarity between the Roma and African-American communities on the 500th anniversary of the Roma slave trade in Romania.

June 2017

Reclaiming Adolescence: A Roma Youth Perspective

Harvard Educational Review

The Summer 2017 issue of the Harvard Educational Review (HER) includes “Reclaiming Adolescence: A Roma Youth Perspective,”  a paper about the FXB Roma Program research in Serbia in partnership with the Center for Interactive Pedagogy. Go to the link for the paper.

To further highlight the team’s work, Margareta Matache, Jacqueline Bhabha, and Arlan Fuller contributed an op-ed to Voices in Education, the HER blog. Go to the blogpost,  “Writing Romani Youth Lives.” 

April 2017

Child refugees in Europe ‘forced to sell bodies’ to pay smugglers

The Guardian

Unaccompanied child refugees in Greece desperate to reach the UK and other parts of northern Europe are being forced to sell their bodies in order to pay smugglers to help them with their journeys, according to a new report from Harvard University.

The report, from Dr Vasileia Digidiki and Prof Jacqueline Bhabha at the university’s centre for health and human rights, reveals what they describe as a “growing epidemic of sexual exploitation and abuse of migrant children in Greece”.

Read the article

A Life in the Margins: Understanding the Roma Experience

Weatherhead Center Blog

In recognition of International Roma Day, Weatherhead Faculty Associates Jacqueline Bhabha and Jennifer Leaning, and their colleague, Roma Program Director Margareta Matache, discuss the annual conference and their team’s research on a disenfranchised people.

In one of the popular Madeline children’s stories, the well-known redheaded French schoolgirl runs away with her friend Pepito to join a caravan of Gypsies who train them to perform in their traveling circus.

Read the rest of the blogpost

March 2017

The Weaponization of Healthcare: Health in Conflict

The Lancet

This week the Lancet-American University of Beirut (AUB) Commission on Syria, which FXB director Dr. Jennifer Leaning co-chairs, published its first health policy paper, “Health workers and the weaponisation of health care in Syria: a preliminary inquiry.”

The conflict in Syria presents new and unprecedented challenges that undermine the principles and practice of medical neutrality in armed conflict. With direct and repeated targeting of health workers, health facilities, and ambulances, Syria has become the most dangerous place on earth for health-care providers. The weaponisation of health care—a strategy of using people’s need for health care as a weapon against them by violently depriving them of it—has translated into hundreds of health workers killed, hundreds more incarcerated or tortured, and hundreds of health facilities deliberately and systematically attacked.

Read more

Go to the Commission’s web page

January 2017

No Easy Answer for Health Void in Syria

Harvard Gazette

Syria’s civil war, now under a fragile cease-fire, has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and left widespread devastation, including a health care system in crisis. Rebuilding that system will require replacing at least 1,000 doctors, nurses, and other health care workers who have fled or been killed, according to Jennifer Leaning, a Harvard expert on the health impacts of warfare.

Leaning, the François-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, was one of three co-chairs named last month to lead a 15-month study by the medical journal The Lancet examining the war’s consequences for health and society.

The Gazette asked her about the prospects for peace and recovery in Syria.

Read full article

December 2016

Rohingya Face Health Care Bias in Parts of Asia, Study Finds

New York Times

HONG KONG — Members of the Rohingya ethnic group face chronic discrimination in access to medical care in Myanmar and other Asian countries, with severe consequences for health and mortality rates, a study has found.

The report, published online by the British medical journal The Lancet on Dec. 1, said the Myanmar government’s role in the situation could arguably be characterized as genocide or ethnic cleansing.

The study analyzed health care indicators in Myanmar, Bangladesh, Malaysia and other countries where about 1.5 million Rohingya live. The researchers compiled data from governments, human rights groups and other sources. It found that the indicators were consistently worse for the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group, than for other populations living in the same areas.

Read full article

October 2016

Confronting the Refugee Crisis

Harvard Gazette

BERLIN — One minute, Donia Mehu was standing in her kitchen, cooking and puttering. The next she was lying in rubble, horribly wounded and bleeding.

It was 2012, the year that the Syrian civil war came to Aleppo, that troubled nation’s largest city and Mehu’s home. When her husband found her unconscious after the bombing, it was too late to save her leg.

Mehu paused briefly in her story to control her emotions, then continued. Life was good in Aleppo, one of the world’s oldest cities, before the war. She and her husband had no children, yet they did well enough that she was able to stay home and take care of the household. But that world was now blown apart. [Full article]

July 2016

Trafficked workers in India band together in hope of breaking ugly cycle

Christian Science Monitor

“The owner would probably kill us if he found us,” Vanvasi says behind a nondescript brick hut early one morning in April. He and his friend, Ram Jatan, haven’t slept in the same house for more than one night in a row. “We’re scared for our lives.”

Despite his lingering fears, Vanvasi knows he’s lucky to have escaped the kiln at all. India is home to 18.3 million modern slaves – or 40 percent of the world’s total of 45.8 million – according to the 2016 Global Slavery Index from the Walk Free Foundation. Hundreds of thousands of them work in brick kilns here in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, in dangerous and squalid conditions.” [full story]

IS Use of Social Media to Recruit, Radicalize Still a Top Threat to US

Voice of America

“Nearly eight months after overhauling its strategy to curtail the Islamic State terror group’s success in cyberspace, U.S. officials admit it is hard to know if they are making much headway.

“This arguably is the most complex challenge that the federal government and industry face,” said George Selim, director of the office for community partnerships at the Department of Homeland Security. “There’s not an overarching measure.” [full story]

Study Reveals Deficiencies in Rehabilitation of Child Labourers

The Hindu

Despite increased awareness on child trafficking, there are “startling inconsistencies” between the policy commitments and on-the-ground realities for rehabilitation of child labourers across three northern States of Rajasthan, Bihar and Delhi, says a new study conducted by an institution attached to Harvard University of the U.S.

The study, released here over the week-end, covered the trafficking source State of Bihar, the transit State of Delhi, and the trafficking destination State of Rajasthan. Titled “Is This Protection?,” the study was conducted by Harvard University’s Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Centre for Health and Human Rights. [full article]

June 2016

Book Review: Child Migration & Human Rights in a Global Age

Huffington Post

Princeton’s promotional website begins its pitch for this book with the question, “Why, despite massive public concern, is child trafficking on the rise?”

After reading this important but disturbing tome it is clear there isn’t any “massive public concern.” While laws, conventions and treaties protecting children’s rights exist on paper, implementation is sketchy at best. [Full article]

April 2016

Thousands Gather in Times Square to Commemorate Genocide

The Armenian Weekly

NEW YORK—The Centennial of the Armenian Genocide last year reinvigorated worldwide efforts to not only commemorate the massacres of 1.5 million lost lives but to seek recognition and justice with renewed energy.

Entering a new century of commemorations, this year thousands gathered in one of the most illustrious landmarks in the world—Times Square, New York—on Sun., April 24, to pay homage to those killed in 1915 and to show the perpetrators and the world at large that the legacy of those who perished during the Armenian Genocide continues to live on. [Full article]

Roma Slavery: The Case for Reparations

Foreign Policy in Focus

After years of neglect or outright dismissal, movements calling for reparations for historical injustices have resurfaced with renewed vigor. Some of these movements are defined by race or ethnicity, others by religion, gender, social class or caste. They span a multiplicity of national or regional affiliations.

Participants at the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban, for instance, pressed governments for substantial social and economic public investment in programs that target the needs and rights of harmed communities. In 2014, Ta Nehisi Coates wrote an influential article in The Atlantic revitalizing calls for reparations in the United States for the descendants of slaves. In 2015 at an Oxford Union debate, Shashi Taroor argued that Britain should pay reparations to India, a call that went viral in India itself. Those interested in Roma slavery, meanwhile, have prioritized memorialization through symbolic remedies, including public monuments, apologies, commemorative days, or history books. [Full article]

Hurricane Maria likely led to deaths of more than 4,600 people, researchers say

CBS News, with David Begnaud reporting

Hurricane Maria, which pummeled Puerto Rico in September 2017, is likely responsible for the deaths of more than 4,600 people — some 70 times higher than official estimates, U.S. researchers said Tuesday.  Read more

March 2016

Zika: Starting Over with Each New Public Health Emergency?

Feminism & Psychology

Every time there is a new public health emergency, it seems we have to re-learn the same old lessons. Zika is now forcing us to face some of the lessons we might have learned from Ebola. For example, Ebola showed us so clearly that outbreaks of disease have differential effects on different populations. An epidemic of any disease highlights, like a social x-ray, those who are vulnerable because of poverty, gender, race, age, and other aspects of identity. Individuals who live under any combination of these marginalizing conditions may be invisible in society much of the time, but when epidemics arise, their collective vulnerability to ill health, and the risk this poses to the rest of society, are illuminated in sharp relief.  The connections between poverty and gender discrimination could not be clearer in the aftermath of Zika. [Full article]

Poor Reintegration Leaves India’s Rescued Child Workers At Risk

Reuters

MUMBAI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – India’s strategy for rescuing and reintegrating child victims of labour trafficking is marred by poor coordination, a lack of accountability and inadequate resources that can leave children at risk of further harm, Harvard researchers say.

There must be a comprehensive, sustained effort to address these issues, rather than the current short-term approach to return children to the same circumstances that led to their trafficking in the first place, the researchers said in a report released this week. [Full article]

History Slam Episode Eighty: Human Rights Frameworks for Health and Why They Matter

ActiveHistory.ca

“Before I had my two children, I had a miscarriage.” This is how Alicia Yamin starts her new book Power, Suffering, and the Struggle for Dignity: Human Rights Frameworks for Health and Why They Matter. By introducing the book in such a personal manner, Yamin, the Policy Director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, prepares the reader for what is to follow. In interweaving personal stories, Yamin demonstrates how health should be situated as a human right and, in doing so, represents a major turning point in the struggle for dignity. [Full article with podcast]

February 2016

Saúde, direitos humanos e zika

Huffington Post Brazil

This article is a translation of a blog written by Professor Alicia Yamin concerning the need to respond to the zika virus outbreak using a multifaceted response that considers the social and political context in which such incidences occur. The article has also been reproduced in the US version of the Huffington Post. Full blog (Portuguese).

Health, Human Rights and the Zika Virus

Huffington Post

To fight Zika, we must fight poverty and powerlessness and ensure that women enjoy their rights.

Health ministers throughout Latin America have announced they will unite to stop the alarming spread of the Zika virus. Similarly, the World Health Organization has acted with uncharacteristic haste to curb this virus, of which the world presently knows very little. But there is much we do know about containing Zika’s impact, because it is, yet again, a disease of poverty and disempowerment. Therefore, it will take more than health ministers and agencies to overcome it. [Full article]

This Huffington Post article originally appeared on the website of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University.

January 2016

“ISIS is a modern phenomenon; it is really a new religion”

Today’s Zaman

In an exclusive interview with Today’s Zaman, Professor Jessica Stern shared her insights on the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). Stern states that “for Baghdadi and ISIS, the caliphate is here and now,” suggesting that ISIS counts the re-establishment of the caliphate as an essential step leading up to the apocalypse. “Although many jihadi groups are somewhat apocalyptic, ISIS is much more focused on an end times narrative and on the imminence of the prophesied final battle,” she argues. [Full article]

Studying the Kumbh Mela from Many Perspectives

Harvard South Asia InstituteHarvard Global Health Institute

What happens when tens of millions of people form a temporary city on the banks of a holy river? In 2013, a team from Harvard set out to answer this question, and found that there is much more than meets the eye at the Kumbh Mela.

On Monday, January 18, the Harvard South Asia Institute (SAI) launched the book and exhibition Kumbh Mela: Mapping the Ephemeral Megacity in Mumbai at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya in partnership with the Asia Society India Centre and the Harvard Club of Mumbai. The event drew a crowd of more than 200 people, including Harvard alumni, community members, government officials, students, and members of the public. [Full article]

AP INVESTIGATION: Feds’ Failures Imperil Migrant Children

Washington Times

As tens of thousands of children fleeing violence in Central America crossed the border in search of safe harbor, overwhelmed U.S. officials weakened child protection policies, placing some young migrants in homes where they were sexually assaulted, starved or forced to work for little or no pay, an Associated Press investigation has found. [Full article]

When Water Is Safer Than Land

Harvard Magazine

The jubilation that accompanied the flowering of the Arab Spring is long gone as its deadly aftermath—in Libya, Syria, and elsewhere—spirals into transcontinental turmoil. We face the prospect of a grim winter. Hundreds of thousands of desperate people in flight from those indiscriminate civil wars (not to mention the chaos in Iraq and Yemen, the turmoil in parts of Africa, and the ethnic oppression in Myanmar) face arduous hurdles in search of safety and security in Europe and elsewhere, while potential hosts negotiate rising xenophobia (intensified by the November attacks in Paris) and increasing desperation in the face of apparently unending need caused by the continuing migrant arrivals. [Full article]

December 2015

Experts Urge Importance of Mental Health in Disaster Situations

Express Tribune/international New York Times

KARACHI: Gun shots, explosions and terrorist attacks break you or make you. On December 16, 2014, 147 innocent people lost their lives but the ones lucky enough to survive are haunted by the trauma they faced that day.

To remember the deceased and to save the ones who survived an event was organised by the Aman Foundation, in collaboration with Harvard South Asia Initiative on ‘Mental Health in Disaster Response’. [Full article]

November 2015