In celebration and defense of progress for women's health I was delighted to read that Planned Parenthood selected Baltimore Health Commissioner Leana Wen as next President. Dr. Wen, an ER doctor, a fierce advocate and outspoken leader in Public Health, is the right person to take on the fight to protect women’s access to reproductive health care in times, in which women’s rights are increasingly under attack, women’s health issues are neglected, and efforts are under way to overturn Roe v. Wade. Aside from the moral imperative that women should be free to make decisions about their own bodies ..read more

The Republican House tax plan threatens students, science, and society Richard Sima, Kaitlin Wood, Leah Cairns, Jenny Carlson, and Chanel Matney Last month, the House of Representatives passed its tax reform bill, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Clearing this first legislative hurdle presents an imminent threat to the lives of roughly 145,000 graduate students and could cripple the future of scientific research and innovation in the United States. As doctoral students in the biomedical sciences at Johns Hopkins University, we receive a living stipend of roughly $30,000 as well as a tuition wai ..read more

By Jenny Carlson Definition of ‘‘Waters of the United States’’—Recodification of Pre-Existing Rules AGENCY: Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers, Department of Defense; and Environmental Protection Agency(EPA). ACTION: Proposed rule.   I. What is the overarching issue? The 1972 Clean Water Act gave the federal government authority to limit pollution to both major bodies of water (i.e. Chesapeake Bay) and to streams and wetlands that drain into those bodies of water. However, in 2001 and 2006, two Supreme Court decisions resulted in legal confusion on whether or not the federal gover ..read more

Inoculate Low-income Countries, Stop Trying with U.S. Citizens Who Still Don’t Want It By: Hannah Gardner Convincing people in the United States who don’t want to get vaccinated is time consuming, complicated, and expensive but vaccinating people in developing countries is only about logistics. We are in a global emergency. A necessary question to consider - how can we make the greatest impact with the resources we have? Since March, the United States has discarded 15 million expired vaccines[1]. Alabama alone has thrown away over 65,000 vaccines[2]. The consequences of wasted vaccines – the v ..read more

Education in the Pandemic Era: Insight into the Future of Schooling for Students with Developmental Disabilities Jayati Sharma COVID-19 has undoubtedly changed the face of education around the globe. With over 90% of US households reporting some form of distance learning since the onset of the pandemic, online learning has become a core & lasting part of many Americans' lives this year, with the potential to last far into 2021, too. Many children and families struggled through March's abrupt transition to distance learning, and continue dealing with the subsequent aftershocks of obstacles ..read more

Steven Jerjian On 23rd January 2020, authorities in Wuhan, China, shuttered the entire city public transit network to fight the spread of coronavirus. Nonetheless, the virus was already rapidly spreading around the world. By early April, New York City subway ridership had plummeted by 92% as travel was strongly discouraged and stay-at-home orders were in place. While the freefall of international air travel amid the pandemic may have garnered the most public attention, the short-term impacts closer to the ground have been just as severe. Public transit administrations, many already struggling ..read more

Embracing discomfort through COVID-19 Joshua Hooks A couple of months ago, something remarkable happened. I was going to the grocery store and as has become customary, I tied my double stranded face mask before leaving the car. But this day, unlike many before it, the act was almost unconscious. The tie behind my head, which for weeks felt clumsy and foreign, was finished in a matter of seconds, and I was out of the car before I knew it. I know this sounds ordinary to many by now, but I am once again amazed by how quickly we, as humans, can adapt to a “new normal”. When faced with disruptions ..read more

STEMulate the Vote: Uniting Science Advocates Prior to the 2020 Election Talia Henkle Summer 2020. A seemingly innocuous phrase unless you happen to be living through it. All of us know the tribulations it entails; a spike of COVID-19 cases, civil unrest due to racism embedded in our culture, wildfires and hurricanes running rampant across the country, and an increasingly decaying political landscape where actions are being taken to actively push scientists out of the policymaking process, be they assisting with the global pandemic or the climate crisis. Personally, my outlook of the future wa ..read more

The Climate Action Now Act & The Paris Agreement Tatiana Eaves The Climate Action Now Act was introduced in the House on March 27 as bill number H.R. 9, by Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL14). H.R. 9 is legislation that directs the president to develop a plan for the United States to meet its nationally determined contribution under the Paris Agreement. It requires the U.S to remain in the Paris Agreement beyond 2020 by preventing the administration from using any federal dollars to withdraw from the agreement. In September 2016, during his closing months as president, Obama formally entered the Pa ..read more

Does the U.S. Need a New Deal on Stem Cell Policy? A. Rahman Ford, JD, PhD Newly-appointed FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn may be facing a Rooseveltian moment in stem cell policy. In the midst of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted his New Deal, a series of reforms aimed at quelling the economic uncertainty that Americans were facing as a result of a devastated economy. In his First Inaugural Address, Pres. Roosevelt famously remarked, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless,  unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to co ..read more