The End of COVID, Biological Weapons, and Rising Diabetes Cases

Editors' Note

U.S. President Joe Biden made headlines this week when he declared in an interview that the COVID-19 pandemic was over. We asked Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) Director Christopher Murray whether he agrees and about the new omicron-variant COVID-19 vaccine and who should get it.

We are keeping a close eye on the UN General Assembly meeting in New York where Russian nuclear threats, closed-door climate change conversations, and global health security are on the agenda. In that vein, our second piece looks at the Biological and Toxin Weapons (BWC) Convention and how it could help increase transparency and counter Russian disinformation campaigns against legitimate biological laboratory activities by the United States, other NATO countries, and former Soviet republics.

Maya women in Guatemala face an uphill climb due to deep-rooted poverty and gender inequality, explains our next author, who profiles a high school graduate working to empower women in her community through her Huertos Familiares gardening program. Our final piece highlights new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention findings on rising gestational diabetes rates in the United States, especially among women of South Asian descent, and why the report hit home for the author.

As always, thank you for reading, and be well. —Thomas J. Bollyky and Mary Brophy Marcus, Editors  