The Conversation, CC BY-ND Before the United States began vaccinating all infants at birth with the hepatitis B vaccine in 1991, around 18,000 children every year contracted the virus before…
Category: Anthropology
More Americans meet criteria for high blood pressure under new guidelines
Nearly half of all Americans have high blood pressure – a condition called hypertension. Hypertension is the No. 1 risk factor for heart disease and stroke. In addition, hypertension increases…
New website tracks how Pennsylvania’s $2.2B in opioid settlement funds is being spent
Pennsylvania is due to receive US$2.2 billion dollars from the national opioid settlements, and a new database shows the public where that money is going. Starting in 2021, a national,…
Pneumonia vaccines for adults are now recommended starting at age 50 – a geriatrician explains the change
Autumn brings a chill in the air – and the start of another season of respiratory illnesses, which can be especially hard for older adults. Although vaccine recommendations have been…
Why Florida’s plan to end vaccine mandates will likely spread to other conservative states
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a plan in early September 2025 that he intends to make Florida the first state to end vaccine mandates across all schools and in other…
Vaccine death and side effects database relies on unverified reports – and Trump officials and right-wing media are applying it out of context
Trump officials intend to link 25 child deaths to COVID-19 vaccines, according to reporting from The Washington Post. These findings will reportedly be discussed during the Sept. 18-19, 2025, meeting…
Calling deaths ‘preventable’ can obscure barriers to health care access and shift blame to individuals
Each year in the U.S., tens of thousands of deaths are categorized as “preventable” — meaning, in theory, they did not need to happen. A missed cancer screening, a fatal…
2 shootings, 2 states, minutes apart − a trauma psychiatrist explains how exposure to shootings changes all of us
On Sept. 10, 2025, the nation’s attention was riveted by the fatal shooting of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk on a college campus in Utah. At nearly the exact same…
Harm-reduction vending machines offer free naloxone, pregnancy tests and hygiene kits
In the lobby of the YMCA in Reading, Pennsylvania, stands a row of vending machines – but one machine is different from the rest. Instead of stocking chips or soda,…
Proposed cuts to NIH funding would have ripple effects on research that could hamper the US for decades
In May 2025, the White House proposed reducing the budget of the National Institutes of Health by roughly 40% – from about US$48 billion to $27 billion. Such a move…
