An infant formula shortage continues to make headlines and disrupt lives in the United States. Two CEOs of a Los Angeles–based nonprofit organization discuss how that shortage is disproportionately affecting low-income families, who are forced to make impossible trade-offs between food, rent, and essentials such as formula and diapers.
The planet is graying: for the first time in history, it holds more people aged sixty-five and over than children under five. Our latest interview in our mayors' series features Taipei, Taiwan, mayor and physician Ko Wen-Je and his quest to reshape Taipei as a senior-friendly city. COVID-19 vaccination rates are still strikingly low in some low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and many have had to rely on donated jabs. Our next piece looks at how to build vaccine production capacity in LMICs to deliver timely, sustainable, and predictable access to vaccines for COVID-19 and future outbreaks. A fourth article examines partnerships between government and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to overcome the last-mile challenges in reaching LMIC communities that need COVID shots, with a focus on the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation look at the global health-care workforce and whether it contains enough doctors, nurses, midwives, medical technicians, and other types of health workers to provide universal health coverage. They also highlight the differences between the health workforces in Bangladesh and the Philippines, showing how, despite having different compositions of doctors and nurses, both are able to perform similarly.
As always, thank you for reading, and be well. —Thomas J. Bollyky and Mary Brophy Marcus, Editors
