Population Health News Roundup: January 2021

IAPHS Members in the News

Richard Carpiano in the Los Angeles Times: Several “odd bedfellows” are coming together to oppose COVID-19 vaccines, creating a risk to public health. “’You are getting the libertarianism with a whole bunch of pseudo-science and conspiracy theories,’” Carpiano said.”

Roland J. Thorpe and Darrell Hudson in ProPublica:  Young black men are dying from COVID-19 at a significantly higher rate.  Striving to get ahead, being constantly vigilant, and being strong enough to lift others, as echoed in the legend of John Henry, may be a factor. Daily stress and exposure to cortisol “resets the normal,” according to Thorpe.  Hudson says he scans his closet before teaching class to find a “Non-Threatening Black Guy Uniform.”  (December 22, 2020)

Alicia Riley, Jaqueline Torres, and Rita Hamad in BMJ Epidemiology & Community Health: Mothers and kids may do better in left-leaning states than they do in right-leaning states, possibly due to stable characteristics of the left-leaning states. (January 6, 2021)

Shannon Monnat in the Syracuse University Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion Population Health Research Brief Series: “The sugar industry is a ‘manufacturer of illness.'” (January 14, 2021)

Shannon Monnat, Jennifer Karas Montez, and Douglas Wolf in Preventive Medicine: State preemption laws that effectively block local governments from increasing the minimum wage may have led to an increase in infant deaths. Six hundred infants could have been saved annually with a minimum wage increase to $9.99. (April 2021, shared January 18, 2021 on the Syracuse University Lerner Center for Public Health  Promotion Population Health Research Brief Series.) 

Fred Zimmerman in The Milbank Quarterly: “The historical mission of public health is to ensure the conditions in which people can be healthy, and yet the field of public health has been distracted from this mission by an excessive reliance on randomized-control trials, a lack of formal theoretical models, and a fear of politics.” (December 15, 2020.)

Disparities

Under-utilized care for reproductive health under ACA dependent coverage: After the ACA expansion, young adults covered as dependents increased their use of some preventive care, but not for sexual/reproductive health. (JAMA Network Open, December 18, 2020)

Social vulnerability linked to poor surgical outcomes: At the county level, communities with a high SVI had worse postoperative outcomes for surgeries such as colectomy or lung resection. “The impact of social vulnerability was most pronounced among black/minority patients…” (Annals of Surgery, December 18, 2020)

The pandemic will cause a large life expectancy drop in the U.S. with disproportionate affects for certain groups: Overall, life expectancy will drop by 1.13 years, with the rate 3 to 4 times worse for Black and Latinx populations than for Whites. (PNAS, February 21, 2021)

Place & Built Environments

Black women opting outside, but finding racism: Hiking and other outdoor activities can boost health. But Black Girls Hike (now Vibe Tribe Adventures), a group designed to encourage sisterhood and the love of the outdoors, has been reported to the sheriff and to park rangers in Colorado. (Kaiser Health News, January 6, 2021)

Gentrification in Hong Kong’s Sham Shui Po district: The pandemic has led middle-class Hong Kong residents to reinvent one of Hong Kong’s poorest districts. But vulnerable residents, along with a high level of inequality, remain. (Bloomberg CityLab, December 15, 2020)

Environmental Health & Justice

Flint now has clean water, but some people don’t trust it:  Despite a huge  $400 million project to deliver safe water to Flint, many residents doubt it’s safe. (Politico, December 23, 2020)

Sewage management still a problem in some parts of America: Waste pools of sewage (and hookworms) still exist in Lowndes County, reflecting deep disparities. (Grist, December 29, 2020)

Policies & Programs

Adventures in UBI coming soon: Elven American cities will give people direct cash payments with no strings attached. Programs will take different forms in different cities, including some focused on certain populations. (Bloomberg CityLab, January 4, 2021)

Beverage tax/repeal and changes in public harm perception: After the Cook County Sweetened Beverage Tax was repealed, the volume sold returned to “pretax levels.” Researchers suggest that “the tax did not change public perception of the harms associated with sweetened beverage intake.” (JAMA Network Open, December 28, 2020)

Illinois extends health coverage to undocumented seniors: Illinois will “provide public health insurance to all low-income noncitizen seniors, even if they’re in the country illegally.” (Kaiser Health News, January 7, 2021)

Global Health

Spain sees record drop in traffic deaths: The number of fatal accidents in Spain dropped by 21% during the pandemic lockdown. (AlJazeera, January 7, 2021)

Global equitable distribution of the pandemic vaccine is needed: “Vaccine nationalism” could mean poorer countries will fall behind in the race to vaccinate the world. (Reuters, January 18, 2021)