Health
How a Popular Medical Device Encodes Racial Bias
Pulse oximeters give biased results for people with darker skin. The consequences could be serious.
Dismantling Medical Elitism
American medicine has long put professional prestige over the well-being of patients and physicians alike.
India’s Response to COVID-19 Is a Humanitarian Disaster
The government enforced a strict lockdown for weeks, giving the illusion of responsible policy. Poor people are now paying the price.
Burdens and Benefits
A recent abortion ruling asks whether abortion access laws may one day be judged on how they serve women's health.
What Would Health Security Look Like?
Struggles for Medicare for All and a Green New Deal are two sides of the same coin.
The Totality of the Evidence
As policymakers debate the right response to COVID-19, they must take seriously the harms of pandemic policies, not just their benefits.
Sweden’s Relaxed Approach to COVID-19 Isn’t Working
With few restrictions and no tracing of the disease’s spread, the government is relying upon Swedish character and traditions to see it through the pandemic.
Models v. Evidence
COVID-19 has revealed a contest between two competing philosophies of scientific knowledge. To manage the crisis, we must draw on both.
Deaths of Despair
Boston Review talks with Nobel Prize-winning economist Angus Deaton about COVID-19, the relationship between culture, financial hardship, and health, and why capitalism’s flaws are proving fatal for America’s working class.
Trump, WHO, and Half a Century of Global Health Austerity
Any attempt to revive solidarity between rich and poor nations must begin by recapturing the commitment to social and economic rights on which the World Health Organization was founded.
The New Politics of Care
The right response to COVID-19 is to rebuild our economy from the ground up, putting people to work in a massive jobs program to secure the public health of all.
What Would Boccaccio Say About COVID-19?
The Florentine humanist’s description of the Black Death in the Decameron remains one of the most thoughtful accounts of a society living under a pandemic.
Recessions often improve population health, but COVID-19 may be different
Mortality rates typically fall during economic downturns. But the unprecedented features of the COVID-19 shutdown suggest that trend might not hold this time.
No, Autocracies Aren’t Better for Public Health
Some have praised China’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but its suppression of information helped cause the problem in the first place.
As Telemedicine Surges, Will Community Health Suffer?
Early advocates thought it could provide equal access to high-quality care. But private investment has increasingly crowded out public service.
New Pathogen, Old Politics
We should be wary of simplistic uses of history, but we can learn from the logic of social responses.
Eight Needed Steps in the Fight Against COVID-19
In addition to masks and ventilators, doctors demand a fundamental transformation of our health care system.
Fighting for Public Health
The United States has never understood the connection between community and personal well-being.
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