Earlier this week, news reports emerged that the World Health Organization has quietly shelved the second phase of its investigation into the origins of COVID-19, citing ongoing challenges of conducting research in China. Although a definitive answer on the roots of the pandemic remains shrouded in mystery, health experts’ understanding of its effects is improving. Our first piece is an update of one of the most popular posts on Think Global Health, giving the latest numbers on how COVID-19 deaths compare to other leading causes of death from 2020 to 2022.
In our next article, Jack Leslie, former CEO of Weber Shandwick, explores the trends behind many Western democracies’ crisis of trust in public health, a phenomenon that extends back to the early 1970s.
Our colleague Tom Frieden leads the group of authors behind our third article, which explores the extraordinary number of deaths attributable each year to household pollution, and provides the newest thinking on how that staggering loss of lives could be reduced.
Next, Rahul Sharma, chairman of the department of emergency medicine at Weil Cornell, argues that maintaining the pandemic-related increases in telemedicine could help reduce emissions associated with a high volume of patient travel to caregivers.
Wrapping up the week, researchers from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation present new data that demonstrates past COVID-19 infection provides as much, if not more, protection than two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Based on those findings, they argue that the United States should update its COVID entry requirements to allow travelers entering the country to show proof of previous infection in lieu of a vaccination card.
As always, thank you for reading.—Thomas Bollyky, Editor
