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One truth traveled the world with Covid-19: When infectious diseases spread, no one is safe until everyone is safe. If no mechanism for international health cooperation existed, it would have to be created. (Gordon Brown, 1/9)

You are a health care provider — an emergency room doctor, a pediatric nurse practitioner, a physician assistant. You meet a young woman whose partner found her unresponsive after vomiting, an adolescent boy training for his school’s track team and not meeting growth targets, or a man prescribed a weight loss medication who now isolates himself due to strict food rules. (Deborah R. Glasofer and Evelyn Attia, 1/9)

My experience reflects the fragmented dysfunction of our health care system, where patients are thrown into several spinning wheels that rarely exchange information and coordinate care. The problem is especially bad with mental health, because therapists, psychologists, and pharmacists usually don’t confer with primary care doctors. (Thomas Lee, 1/8)

Outside the main entrance of World Health Organization’s headquarters in Geneva stands a bronze statue of an African boy walking ahead of his blinded father, guiding him with a long stick they both hold. This poignant artwork depicts how onchocerciasis, an ancient disease commonly known as river blindness, impacts many of the world’s poorest people. Several replicas have been installed around the world, including the Carter Center in Atlanta. (Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, 1/8)

Research shows that breastfed babies are at a lower risk of illness, infectious disease, diabetes, asthma, obesity and sudden infant death syndrome. They also appear to have fewer behavioral problems and higher I.Q.s. Modeling suggests that a lack of optimal breastfeeding costs the global economy an estimated $341 billion per year. (Nicholas Kristof, 1/8)