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public health
Mandani Won by Centering the Needs of New Yorkers
Mamdani has taken a page out of the Community Health Scientists’ playbook and has developed a plan by the people and for the people.
Nov 07, 2025
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s campaign captured young voters' attention in a mayoral election in ways that haven’t been seen in a long time. Voters under 30 turned out early, and 73% of all young voters polled planed to voted for him. This resulted in over 1 million voters casting a ballot for Mamdani as mayor, the biggest turnout in years.
Much of the media has attributed this engagement to his age (34), his use of social media, and his perceived accessibility. While this is a good assessment, it misses the core of what makes him effective, and that is his use of public-health community engagement strategies. He is talking to the people without an agenda and then using his platform to help fulfill their needs.
As a community health scientist by training and the associate director of the Office of Community Engagement and Neighborhood Health Partnerships at University of Illinois, Chicago-University of Illinois Health, I’ve spent the last 17 years working to improve the lives of the historically redlined and disinvested communities to which I belong. The key principal for community engagement is centering the needs of the community and engaging a diverse, representative group of people to wrestle with information from a variety of viewpoints all to the end of making better decisions.
Mamdani’s victory was predicated, in large part, on this very approach.
He engaged the city of New York, and they supported him back.
An excellent example of this is his video on halalflation (Halal Inflation). In this video, Mamdani interviews several food truck owners and examines what is driving the cost. Unanimously, they describe paying nearly $20,000 a year to rent a permit from someone who pays only $400 to the city. A $19,600 profit for someone who had the fortune of owning something with an arbitrarily limited supply.
Mamdani then shares four proposed bills that would address this issue and allow more permits for food truck owners. An elegant solution to a real problem that has the potential to reduce the cost of running a food truck, potentially making the meal more affordable. It is a brilliantly simple video, but it speaks volumes about the type of politician he claims to be. It is not common to see a politician dig into the core issues that affect people's lives and offer real, palatable solutions. Bringing down the cost of food is a relevant issue.
The cost of groceries is of paramount concern to people.
President Donald Trump said, “Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again, to bring down the prices of all goods” (including groceries) at a rally in Bozeman, Montana. Yet Trump was visibly flustered in an interview last week with Norah O’Donnell and "60 Minutes" when pressed on the increase in grocery prices, which haven’t decreased.
One of Mamdani’s more unconventional proposals has been his idea of a network of city-owned grocery stores—without rent or property taxes, the hope is they will pass the savings onto the customer.
His opponent, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, tried to suggest that this idea is laughable and naively idealistic. Neither of these statements is accurate; there are many municipalities that are engaging in the same idea of trying to make life better for residents. In St. Paul, Kansas, the city opened a grocery store in response to a demand from the community.
Not all municipalities will arrive at a city=owned grocery store, but a city-supported food enterprise is not as outlandish as it is presented. Consider the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia—it’s a public market, or the Milwaukee Public Market, a quasi-government run market. In my hometown, Chicago, I am a part of the Food Equity Council and was a part of a listening session that explored a city-owned grocery store. The group settled on exploring a Public Market, similar to the Milwaukee market.
The common thread here is a political administration that is trying to improve the lives of its residents.
Mamdani has embraced these principles. He engaged the city of New York, and they supported him back. It’s not about the fast, free buses or the city-owned grocery stores or the funny videos; it’s that Mamdani has offered more than the typical Democratic Party talking points. Mamdani is not responding to Republican threats or fighting Republicans.
Mamdani has taken a page out of the Community Health Scientists’ playbook and has developed a plan by the people and for the people.
Many Democrats will tout the great social media campaign, but they should take away the elegance of engaging the community where they are and developing a sound plan that puts the people front and center.
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Calling Climate Change a 'Public Health Crisis,' Open Letter Urges Action at COP30
"By putting health first, leaders can design climate policies that protect lives, reduce inequalities, and rebuild trust in international cooperation," the letter reads.
Nov 04, 2025
In the lead-up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil, more than 230 climate and health organizations, activists, policymakers, artists, and experts have signed an open letter urging world leaders to prioritize health as they discuss how to address the climate emergency.
The letter, "Put Health at the Heart of Climate Action," was publicized on Tuesday. It urges leaders not only to center health but to "raise ambition" in crafting policy to respond to the health harms caused by the burning of fossil fuels and the subsequent heating of the atmosphere.
"Health is not a secondary benefit of climate policy—it is the foundation of resilience, prosperity, and justice. Yet health remains marginal in most climate negotiations, treated as an outcome rather than a driver," the letter reads. "At COP30, this must change."
The letter—backed by major public health groups like Médecins Sans Frontières and the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments; green organizations like Amazon Watch, Greenpeace UK, and several Fridays for Future branches; prominent climate activists like Vanessa Nakate; and environmentally minded artists like director Adam McKay—urges five central actions for governments attending COP30 to take:
- Follow through on a just transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy;
- Fund local climate action, especially in poorer countries;
- Don't let polluting industries like fossil fuels, industrial agriculture, or transportation influence climate and health policy;
- Make sure that health is incorporated into all climate plans and policies, including Nationally Determined Contributions and National Action Plans; and
- Include "planetary health education" into school lesson plans and medical training.
“The climate crisis is not just an environmental issue. It is a health and human rights emergency," said Marta Schaaf, director of the Program on Climate, Economic, and Social Justice, and Corporate Accountability for Amnesty International, which signed the letter. "Governments need to take decisive action to fully phase out fossil fuels, to save lives, build resilient communities, and uphold people's right to a healthy environment.”
In particular, the letter writers emphasized the health importance of rapidly phasing out fossil fuels. In addition to being the root cause of all climate-caused health impacts—from deaths, illness, and injury due to more frequent and severe heatwaves and wildfires to waterborne diseases spread by flooding—the burning of oil, gas, and coal also leads to 8 million early air pollution deaths every year and sickens communities living near wells and mines.
"These are not abstract numbers but real people—families struggling to breathe, children developing lifelong conditions, health workers pushed to [the] breaking point," the letter writers said.
The open letter acknowledges the Belém Health Action Plan, which is designed to help the health sector adapt to the climate emergency. However, it argues that COP30 could go further by recognizing and acting upon "the role of fossil fuels in driving the climate crisis and impacting human health."
“Promoting resilient health systems is a central objective of the COP30 Action Agenda," said COP30 Special Envoy for Health Ethel Maciel. "Efforts like this open letter are helping build a broad coalition to drive implementation of the Belém Health Action Plan and its shared goals. I am pleased to add my name as the COP30 health envoy and to see a wide range of partners doing the same as we move closer to the 30th Conference of the Parties in Belém. This letter sends an unequivocal message that health is an essential component of climate action.”
The letter was instigated by Think-Film Impact Production, which has launched a Healthy Planet Now campaign linked to the upcoming documentary My Planet Now, produced by Sandpaper Films and codirected by Jenny Saunders and Henry Singer.
“Every signature on this letter represents a shared story of human resilience and hope," said Amy Shepherd, the chief operating officer of Think-Film Impact Production. "It is essential that policy leaders champion films like My Planet Now, which translate the urgency of the climate and health crisis into emotion and movement—because only when people feel the story will they fight to change its ending.”
It isn't only Think-Film Impact Production and the letter signers who are raising the alarm about the health dangers of the climate crisis. The letter's announcement comes one week after The Lancet published its annual "Countdown on Health and Climate Change."
The 128-authored paper reached several alarming conclusions, including:
- Climate change caused 84% of life-threatening heatwave days between 2020 and 2024;
- Heat-related deaths have risen by 63% since the 1990s, to reach one per minute;
- Extreme drought impacted 61% of land area in 2024;
- Global heating has increased the risk of dengue fever and tick-borne diseases;
- A record-breaking 639 billion work hours were lost due to extreme heat in 2024; and
- A lack of climate action has led to millions of preventable deaths each year.
"With the threats to people's lives and health growing, delivering a health-protective, equitable, and just transition requires all hands on deck. There is no time left for further delay," The Lancet authors wrote at the end of their executive summary.
The Healthy Planet Now letter also concludes with a call to action: "At COP30, governments must treat climate change not only as a planetary emergency but as a direct public health crisis and opportunity. By putting health first, leaders can design climate policies that protect lives, reduce inequalities, and rebuild trust in international cooperation."
"The health of billions—and the future of generations to come—depends on it," it says.
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Don't Let a Fascist Like Trump Act as Judge, Jury, and Executioner
What makes these strikes so appealing to President Donald Trump is that it gives him the godlike power to look down from above and smite anyone who displeases him. But that won't stop the flow of drugs.
Oct 24, 2025
The Trump administration has been blowing up fishing boats in the Caribbean—and now one in the Pacific—claiming without evidence that they’re “drug boats.”
These are extrajudicial executions outside any system of law. And there’s a reason we shouldn’t allow drug warriors to act as judge, jury, and executioner: because over the years, they’ve made many, many tragic mistakes and killed lots of civilians.
I’ve seen countless tragedies like these in my decades studying drug policy. Two were particularly egregious.
In 2001, the United States was using local air forces to shoot down alleged trafficking planes over the Peruvian Amazon. In this case, a surveillance plane flown by CIA contractors misidentified a pontoon plane and had it shot down. Instead of traffickers, they killed a missionary from Michigan named Veronica Bowers and her infant daughter.
Would it be okay for the Mexican military to blow up a US fishing boat because they believed it was smuggling deadly guns into Mexico, even if they offered no evidence? Would that be acceptable to this administration?
The second case was an incident in Honduras in 2012, where the Drug Enforcement Administration and local forces mistakenly opened fire on a water taxi, killing four people—including two pregnant women—and then tried to cover it up.
What makes these strikes so appealing to President Donald Trump is that it gives him the godlike power to look down from above and smite anyone who displeases him, without consequence. He’s even told sick jokes about local fishermen in the Caribbean now being afraid to get in their boats.
If he’s allowed to normalize this kind of international extrajudicial killing, I don’t think it’s a far leap for him to try it domestically.
Imagine a cop chasing a guy down the street, getting hot and tired, and shooting the suspect in the back. The cop probably wouldn’t tell a judge, “Well your honor, I didn’t want to chase him, so I just shot him.” But here’s the president declaring on the international stage: We’re not going to do police work. We’re just going to kill people.
Now imagine the shoe’s on the other foot. Most of the killings in Mexico are done by guns smuggled from the United States. They call it the “River of Iron,” and it’s responsible for literally hundreds of thousands of killings in the country in the past 20 years.
So would it be okay for the Mexican military to blow up a US fishing boat because they believed it was smuggling deadly guns into Mexico, even if they offered no evidence? Would that be acceptable to this administration?
The drug war acts as a price support for drug dealers. That’s why no one wants the drug war to continue more than the smugglers themselves.
Here’s what drug warriors don’t understand: The US isn’t under armed attack from drug traffickers. It’s actually the opposite.
Most drugs cost pennies per dose to manufacture. But the higher the risk to the individual smuggler—like the risk of getting arrested, shut down, or blown up—the more they can charge as drugs move down the smuggling chain.
By the time drugs reach users, they’ve snowballed in value. But consumers in the US have proven more than willing to pay hyper-inflated prices, and even risk arrest, for drugs—just as drinkers were once willing to pay bootleggers huge sums for booze during Prohibition.
In short, our policies create tremendous value for substances that are relatively cheap. We’re making trafficking more profitable, not less.
So if the US bombs a trafficker—or an alleged trafficker—we escalate the risk premium for everyone else in that industry. It’s a bad deal for you if you’re the one who’s killed, but it creates a “job opening” for others in the operation, or a rival cartel, to take over that turf—which is now more lucrative.
The drug war acts as a price support for drug dealers. That’s why no one wants the drug war to continue more than the smugglers themselves. This was ultimately why the US ended alcohol prohibition.
Addiction is a public health problem and requires public health solutions, not allowing someone like Trump to play judge, jury, and executioner—at home or abroad.
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