Leana S. Wen

After eight years of fighting, and multiple rounds of chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation, my mother lost her battle with cancer. I think about her every day. I miss her terribly, and wish she were there to walk me down the aisle at my wedding and to cheer when my sister received her college diploma.

For covid-19, we can think of risk through three key variables: proximity, activity and time. The highest-risk scenario is if you are in close proximity with someone who is infected, in an indoor space, for an extended period of time.

If children cannot see, they cannot learn; if they have untreated medical conditions, they cannot focus in school.

Without access to quality, affordable reproductive health services - which are standard medical care - women will die because they are forced to forego the necessary prevention and treatment for cervical cancer.

It is imperative that we address the barriers to access and the systemic racism that we know is contributing to our astronomically high maternal mortality rates. The onus must be on the health care system to make necessary changes.

Public health depends on winning over hearts and minds. It's not enough to just have a good policy, you have to convince people to actually follow it.

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?

Public health works by using evidence to lessen harm.

In order to improve maternal health, we have to focus on improving all women's health and access to care - not just during labor and delivery, but before and after pregnancy, and throughout our lives.

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.

Simple health interventions such as lead paint abatement and home visiting for pregnant women result in not only improved health for children but also higher rates of graduation, reduced crime, and a more robust workforce.

Of the many lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic thus far, two of the most critical are the need for effective national leadership and clear, consistent communication. Countries that fared well had both in abundance; those that didn't often faltered.

In December of 1990, just before my eighth birthday, I left China for the United States. My father was a political dissident, and after he was released from prison, we joined my mother in a little town in the mountains of Utah. It was quite a change from my hometown of Shanghai, a city of 25 million people.