While women's healthcare extends far beyond reproductive healthcare, its politicization is harming women's overall health and well-being.
Leana S. WenRead
We really need to be talking about the COVID vaccine the same way that we talk about other vaccinations - which is that it's safe, effective, life-saving and essential for the public's health.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of discussing the COVID vaccine in a positive light, similar to how we discuss other vaccines.
Leana S. Wen advocates for a shift in the narrative surrounding the COVID vaccine by highlighting its safety, efficacy, and crucial role in protecting public health. By paralleling the discussions about COVID vaccination with those of other well-accepted vaccines, Wen aims to foster a sense of urgency and trust in vaccination as an essential public health measure.
In practice
During a community health seminar, this quote can be used to encourage vaccination.
While women's healthcare extends far beyond reproductive healthcare, its politicization is harming women's overall health and well-being.
Improvements in global public health must begin locally, and must be driven by leaders who will learn the hard lessons from COVID-19.
Public health is a powerful tool to level that playing field, to bend the arc of our country away from distrust and disparities and back towards equity and justice.
Mental health is just as important as physical health, but why is it that we can't find the same access to mental health treatment as we do for physical health ailments?
My parents and I entered the U.S. legally, but when it was time for our visa extension, we were turned down. Returning to China meant imprisonment for my father and persecution for my family. We were days from being forced to live here illegally when we were granted political asylum. Other families are not so lucky.
When I was 10 years old, my neighbor died in front of me of an asthma attack, because he and his family were undocumented immigrants and his grandmother was afraid of what would happen if they called an ambulance for help.
I expected social rank to be the determining factor in health, and in some ways that's true. But far more important is what sort of society that rank occurs in. Being low ranking in a benevolent troop is a hell of a lot better for your blood pressure than being low ranking in an aggressive troop.
I use the word nursing for want of a better. It has been limited to signify little more than the administration of medicines and the application of poultices. It ought to signify the proper use of fresh air, light, warmth, cleanliness, quiet, and the proper selection and administration of diet-all at the least expense of vital power to the patient.
I'm not asking any of you to make drastic changes to every single one of your recipes or to totally change the way you do business. But what I am asking is that you consider reformulating your menu in pragmatic and incremental ways to create healthier versions of the foods that we all love.
If we want to find safe alternatives to obstetrics, we must rediscover midwifery. To rediscover midwifery is the same as giving back childbirth to women. And imagine the future if surgical teams were at the service of the midwives and the women instead of controlling them.
Good health and good sense are two of life's greatest blessings.
The possibilities and probabilities are all we have to work with in medicine, though. What we are drawn to in this imperfect science, what we in fact covet in our way, is the alterable moment-the fragile but crystalline opportunity for one's know-how, ability, or just gut instinct to change the course of another's life for the better.
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