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
The Unpredictable Social and Economic Cost of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) Outbreak
With the realization that a novel coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) is likely, people across the globe are getting alarmed, and financial markets are starting to tumble.
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.
Common Myths Against Tobacco Taxation: Not Borne Out by Global Evidence
The newly-released Smoking Cessation: A Report of the Surgeon General of the United States (U.S.
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.
Mental Health and Healthy Futures: A Priority Theme at WEF Davos 2020
This week I have enjoyed participating in several livestreamed sessions of the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) under the theme “Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World.” One of the 7 diverse topic areas being addressed during the Meeting is “Healthy Futures”, which I found to be not only highly relevant to the overall theme of the 2020 meeting, but highly evocative of Thomas Mann’s masterpiece “The Magic Mountain” which takes place before World War I in a tuberculosis sanat
How to Accelerate Universal Health Coverage in Latin America and the Caribbean?
In Memory of Miguel A. Marquez, 1934-2014
Over the past four decades, major policy reforms were introduced in several Latin American and Caribbean countries to strengthen their health systems.
Is the Growing Attachment to Smartphones and Digital Media Bad for Our Health? An initial exploration
This note served as background to a presentation delivered per the invitation of the Ecuador Mission to the United Nations at the Meeting on Social Media and Mental Health, organized by the Group of Friends on Mental Health and Well-Being, that is co-led by the Permanent Missions of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Belgium, Canada and Ecuador to the United Nations. New York City, December 12, 2019
Before I say good-bye: reminiscing a life at the World Bank
This blog was originally posted at the WBG Investing in Health site on July 25, 2019, days before I retired from the World Bank Group on August 1, 2019.
The moment has arrived. In a couple of days, I will be retiring from the World Bank after 32 great years, serving in one capacity or another, in about 85 countries across the globe.