Postpartum uninsurance declined among Black women in non-expansion states during the COVID-19 continuous Medicaid coverage policy, but racial gaps persisted, according to a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The research is the first to explicitly examine how the policy affected racial equity in postpartum insurance coverage while also considering states’ Medicaid expansion status under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Between 2015 and 2024, the total number of days without firearm shootings declined in all but one of the ten largest U.S. cities—pointing to the need to newly focus on building and sustaining periods of peace with zero shootings. 

New Stanford-led research traces a direct line from warmer, wetter weather to a mosquito-borne disease epidemic. The findings could help inform policy and interventions to blunt such outbreaks.

A nationally representative survey explores which American adults have had thoughts of shooting others, and factors that might provide opportunities to reduce risk of thoughts becoming reality.

Listeria is the third-leading cause of death among bacterial foodborne pathogens in the U.S. and pregnant individuals bear a disproportionate share of that burden. Yet the scientific models used to set food safety policy have rarely been designed with pregnant people specifically in mind. A new study to be published in Risk Analysis aims to change that. 

A multi-institutional research team in Japan evaluated the impact of the Revised Health Promotion Law and related local ordinances on indoor smoking policies in restaurants and bars. Their analysis identified a modest but significant increase in the proportion of smoke-free establishments following the full enforcement of the national indoor smoking ban in April 2020. Additional increases were observed in jurisdictions covered by stronger passive smoking prevention ordinances implemented by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Chiba City.