2020 Year in Review

Dear PHP Readers,

Vaccines are in sight.

Incredibly, in under 12 months, Covid-19 has been identified, sequenced, deconstructed, developed into inoculations, injected into recipients, clinically tested, and manufactured en masse to provide the widespread immunity we need. Close to 300,000 Americans have died (more than 1.5 million people worldwide). Millions will live if these vaccines are distributed by an invigorated public health infrastructure. Our understanding of health risk and well-being has changed. In this pandemic year, the work at Public Health Post became more important than ever. Our readership continues to grow. We are reaching new populations, cities, countries every day.

In 2020, hundreds of thousands of readers consumed PHP’s Research, News, Viewpoint, and Databyte articles on diverse topics ranging from Covid-19 to opioids, from food policy to climate change, from mental health to violence. New writers from across the globe – from industry, academics, journalism, and government – wrote for us on the urgent topics of our time. Visitors to our offices or to our Zoom rooms graciously allowed us to interview them. We spotlighted research on novel intersections in public health like sleep and racism; pharmacies and Covid-19; Medicaid and housing.

PHP is beginning its fifth year. If you have been reading and subscribing to PHP since 2016, thank you. If you’re new to PHP, you can spend 60 seconds with Public Health Post to learn about how we feature new articles about the state of the health of the population every day. You can also download PHP Radio on Spotify to hear a curated playlist of songs that we believe reflect the cultural conversation about health and social justice. You can stream our monthly episodes of PHPod and meet the newest generation of health leaders.

Every year, the writing staff of PHP transforms. Readers have spent this year with our wonderful group of PHP fellows: Edward Alexander, Gray Babbs, Tasha McAbee, Pat Williams. They will spend the winter and spring finishing their graduate studies at the Boston University School of Public Health. Thank you to all of them for helping us to start new conversations about health via their articles. Their work has been generously referenced in a new book I’ve written with Sandro Galea titled PAINED: Uncomfortable Conversations about the Public’s Health.

Our editing staff remains intact. Jennifer Beard, our Associate Editor, continues to make all our writers’ words better. Nicholas Diamond, our Managing Editor, continues to innovate with our products and outreach. Nick, Jen, and I welcome our newest cohort of graduate student PHP writing fellows: Sara Mar, Devin O’Donnell, Maya Thirkill, Rubina Veerakone, whose by-lines you will see published across the website, social media, and the PHP Friday Roundup newsletter in March.

We hope we have been helpful as a trusted information source and orchestrator of attention through these difficult times. PHP will continue to educate and entertain in 2021. We resume publication on Monday, January 4, 2021 after our winter publishing break. Again, thank you for reading, writing, and subscribing to PHP.

Do you have thoughts, questions, comments, or topics you’d like us to cover? Please send me your ideas at mdstein@bu.edu.

Please remain healthy and safe. Happy Holidays.

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