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Joe Biden is leaving behind a legacy that, as many have pointed out, is mixed at best. But there is one area where the outgoing president has consistently shone: public health. (Leana S. Wen, 1/9)

The advance of H5N1 bird flu reminds us that novel pathogens remain a stubborn threat. Although a full-blown pandemic doesn’t appear imminent, the virus’s ability to infect a wide range of species — from migratory birds to dairy cattle — heightens the chance that it could evolve into a strain that spreads more readily to and among humans. (Scott Gottlieb and Mark B. McClellan, 1/10)

My wife's cancer was caused by the human papillomavirus, which nearly every person will contract at some point in their lives, because nearly every person is sexually active at some point in their lives. The vast majority of us never know we have HPV; however, each year about 47,000 of us in this country develop cervical, throat and other forms of cancer associated with the virus. (Paul Thornton, 1/10)

Maybe you were alarmed when the surgeon general last week said that consuming alcohol is a leading preventable cause of cancer and that alcoholic beverages should carry warning labels more like those for cigarettes. (Charles M. Blow, 1/8)

The U.S. healthcare system’s increasing complexity is taking an unbalanced toll on rural America. Shrinking access, growing health disparities and rising mortality rates put the well-being of 60 million people – roughly one in five Americans – at risk. The situation is dire, and immediate action is imperative to reverse that trajectory. (Niranjan Bose, et al., 1/6)