"There are no Bioweapons in Ukraine," Childhood in Wartime and Freetown's Mayor
March 25, 2022
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Better health begins with ideas
Editors' Note
Although no bioweapon labs exist in Ukraine, claims of the opposite have been plastered across the media as part of Russia's recent disinformation campaign. Our first piece lays out the long history of Russian disinformation on this topic and the facts concerning Ukraine's biological research and public health laboratories. A second article examines how laboratories implement biosafety and biosecurity procedures.
A powerful essay details one author's experience growing up during the Bosnian War, describing the daily childhood rituals that conflict steals, and the lasting trauma children are forced to overcome. Another report chronicles how Hungarian health providers are coping with the surge of refugees at their borders.
A group of surgery experts from Boston explores the tricky balancing act between expanding access to safe surgical care globally while minimizing harm to the climate. Our final piece is the latest in our mayors series—an interview with the mayor of Freetown, Sierra Leone, a city that has tripled in size since its civil war ended in 2002.
Thank you for reading, and be well. —Thomas J. Bollyky and Mary Brophy Marcus, Editors
Freetown, Sierra Leone, which had a population of 500,000 when its civil war ended, now has a population of 1.5 million—a threefold growth in thirty years with no development control
