Officials in Beijing have mobilized extraordinary levels of public compliance with lockdowns, frequent testing requirements, and other measures designed to enforce China's zero-COVID policy—but not with vaccination. Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Senior Fellow for Global Health Yanzhong Huang examines why public outcry, especially on social media, recently spurred the government to reverse an announced mandate in China's capital that would have denied unvaccinated people access to libraries, museums, movie theaters, and other public venues. In a second COVID-19 piece, public health expert Ali H. Mokdad, answers questions about the latest, more contagious subvariant, infection trends, and the current state of testing and tracking.
Also in this issue, a New York obstetrician-gynecologist (OB-GYN) speaks out about the practical implications of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a ruling, that forty-nine years ago, recognized a constitutional right to abortion care. She says that "pregnant people will die as a result."
As monkeypox cases continue to climb throughout the world, we launch a monkeypox timeline that will be updated regularly to keep readers in the know about case counts, outbreak locations, vaccination, and more—and not just in countries where the virus is not endemic.
Last week, an Independent Task Force organized by the Council on Foreign Relations released a report on U.S. foreign policy and cyberspace. The cyber report features a surprising number of insights important to rethinking the United States' role in global health, writes David P. Fidler, CFR's senior fellow for global health and cybersecurity.
As always, thank you for reading, and be well. —Thomas J. Bollyky and Mary Brophy Marcus, Editors
