Patricio V. Marquez

How to Prevent Jails and Prisons from Becoming New Hotspots for the Spread of COVID-19?

Recent newspaper articles have reported on the potential role of jails and prisons as “amplifiers” of the coronavirus pandemic (Ransom and Feuer 2020; Flagg and Neff 2020). For example, data from New York City jails show that 36 out of 1,000 inmates tested positive for the virus versus 4 out of 1,000 people in the city at large (The Legal Aid Society 2020).  Additional information indicates that 23 states across the United States have reported cases in correctional facilities (Coppola and Pettersson 2020).

Does Tobacco Smoking Increases the Risk of Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) Severity? The Case of China

Since December 2019, when Covid-19 emerged in Wuhan city and subsequently spread across China causing varying degrees of illness, the virus has now infected 92,100 people in at least 70 countries.  Data reported from China provide insights into the biology, epidemiology, and clinical characteristics of Covid-19.  

Men are at higher risk of Covid-19

Public Health Investments and Economic Gains: Learning from Latin America and Caribbean History in the Time of Coronavirus

With the advent of 2019-nCoV in China, the world has woken up once again to the inexorable reality that globalization, both the movement of people and goods and services across countries and from continent to continent, enables the spread of viruses and disease.  

Galapagos’ Charles Darwin Foundation: An International Good Practice that Needs to be Supported

A couple of weeks ago, I had the honor of being invited by the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) to the screening of a new documentary directed by Evert van den Bos, Galapagos, Hope for the Future. It was held in New York City as part of a meeting of the Foundation’s Board of Directors, which offered me the opportunity to meet some of the members and learn more about its work.

High Prices for Essential Drugs: A Risk for Public Health, Catastrophic Health Spending, High-Debt Levels, and Impoverishment

As all of us who have been sick or diagnosed with a chronic condition that requires adherence to a daily drug regime know, timely access to required medicines not only helps us get better or manage a health condition over the long term, but saves us from hospitalization if the disease is not controlled, helps us avoid being absent from work, improves our productivity, and enhances our quality of life.