I've been covering conversations about the upcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development with a particular interest in efforts to add health to instiutional framework.
Finally, Germany's E. coli mystery solved, new Medicaid protections for gay couples, parents' vaccine worries and more from our Daily Briefing.
A doctors' gag order over fracking chemicals, good news on obesity prevention, and a rapping global health expert turned World Bank leader, plus more from our Top 5 Today.
Every few decades, a flu pandemic spreads westward from Asia. The last one, in 1968, was relatively mild - and we have yet to see the full damage caused by the swine flu outbreak. But the next pandemic is inevitable - and it’s likely to come from China.
Len Nichols, a highly respected healthcare economist, is the director of the Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics at George Mason University. Previously he directed the Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation, which aimed to expand health insurance coverage to all Americans while reining in costs and improving the efficiency of the overall health care system. Before joining New America, Dr.
Dr. Davida Coady is founder, medical director and former executive director of Options Recovery Services, a program for substance abuse treatment that came out of the Berkeley court system. Options Recovery Services provides free comprehensive addiction treatment to court-ordered clients (covered by Proposition 36 since 2001) and outpatient clients who are also homeless, indigent and dually diagnosed.
Dr. Kammen brings to the analysis of national and international energy policy an understanding of the technology as well as of the economics and the policy landscape. He sees value in greater emphasis on renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power and biomass, not only because it is better for the environment, but also because it would improve our nation's security by lessening reliance on imported oil. Renewables also would produce more jobs than an equivalent investment in fossil fuel energy sources, according to a recent study by Kammen.
