With hurricane season in the Caribbean in full swing, and recent storms leaving a trail of devastation behind, we reached out to Carmen Vélez Vega, professor of public health and social determinants of health at the University of Puerto Rico. She discusses the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona, which pummeled the archipelago on September 18, and her deepest concerns for Puerto Rico—where almost 50 percent of the population lives in poverty—after more than one million residents lost power.
Whistleblowers in South Africa risk their jobs, their families' safety, and their lives to report money laundering and fraud in the country's health sector, according to our next author, a journalist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He discusses some of the country's latest health-whistleblower scandals.
Scientists have been slow to develop strategies that measure and promote well-being within communities, say the authors of our next piece. As social divides yawn wider around the world post-COVID, well-being is more important than ever and requires a standard definition and policies that ensure communities thrive.
We cap off the week with a book recommendation—the recently published Bike Riding in Kabul, Jamie Bowman's eye-opening and unexpectedly humorous memoir of her global travels while serving as a foreign aid worker in several war-torn countries.
As always, thank you for reading, and be well. —Thomas J. Bollyky and Mary Brophy Marcus, Editors
