THE DIRECT CONSEQUENCES OF SARS-COV-2 HAVE BEEN ENORMOUS, with severe illnesses and approximately 1 million deaths in the U.S. among the nation’s more than 80 million reported COVID-19 cases. The danger posed by community spread of the virus resulted in both government-…

FOR DECADES, DR. BILL MCCARTHY HAS CONDUCTED RESEARCH ON LIFESTYLE BEHAVIORS, such as how smoking and eating junk food affect health. This work was frustrating, however, because the health consequences of his research are typically not seen for years.

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It’s been more than a week since a detainee at Victorville — a prison complex in California being used by Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) — was diagnosed with chickenpox.

About 1,000 immigrants were moved here as part of the Trump administration’s…

In July, the World Health Assembly in Geneva made news when delegates passed a resolution promoting breastfeeding. The controversy wasn’t that the resolution passed (it was expected to, without fanfare), but rather that it almost didn’t due to the energetic…

Everyone feels isolated sometimes, but with one in five Americans chronically lonely, has loneliness reached epidemic proportions? In 1988, the journal Science published a landmark study suggesting isolation was as strong a risk factor for morbidity and…

UCLA Fielding School of Public Health faculty, students, staff, and graduates will attend and present at the 2022 American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting in Boston and online: "APHA 2022 — 150 Years of Creating the Healthiest Nation: Leading the Path…

The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic raised significant political tension around immigration in the US. On the one hand, despite imposing restrictions on international travel in response to COVID-19, the US continued to issue visas for immigrant travel (albeit in…

UCLA scientists are embarking on a comprehensive, five-year study to understand the health consequences of what is, to this day, the nation’s largest natural gas blowout. From 2015-16, an estimated 109,000 metric tons of methane was released into the air from the…

A team of UCLA researchers has been awarded $20,993,333 by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to conduct the Aliso Canyon Disaster Health Research Study.

A multidisciplinary team of renowned UCLA scientists and health care practitioners will…

The marijuana business is booming in the U.S. medicinal marijuana is legal in 30 states and the District of Columbia. Eight states have legalized recreational marijuana. Sales figures are up wherever it is legally sold. In Colorado, for example, marijuana…

Looking back at the news of 2018, a story broke every few days on foodborne illness. A recent outbreak, tied to E-coli-tainted romaine lettuce, sickened 59 people in 15 states. This followed several outbreaks tied to romaine and recalls of salmonella-tainted ground beef…

In November, the American Medical Association, representing the nation’s physicians, called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take action against the “urgent public health epidemic” of skyrocketing e-cigarette use.

In early…

Two Medi-Cal care programs designed to help seniors and disabled adults avoid being placed in nursing homes serve only a fraction of those presumed to be eligible, according to a study published today by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, led by Dr. Ninez Ponce…

In the year 2000, the United States essentially claimed victory against childhood diseases, eliminating measles and making the prevalence of other childhood diseases, such as mumps, extremely rare. Today, we are losing.

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Why is measles making a comeback, especially in the U.S. almost 20 years after it was officially declared eradicated? Much media attention has focused on the erosion of herd immunity due to pockets of unimmunized children and deservedly so. But another…

There’s a serious public health threat that most Americans are exposed to every day. According to the World Health Organization, the health effects of even short-term exposure include sleep disturbance, stress and anxiety, while long-term impacts include…

Is sunscreen safe? Dozens of news reports posed this question when a JAMA study was released last month. Prompted by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) questions, the study found that with continuing use, the active ingredients (avobenzone,…

Imagine you are on a bike descending a long, steep hill when your brakes fail. As you gather more speed, you face a life-extinguishing event at the bottom unless the brakes start working again. This is an apt analogy for the greatest challenge to human…

Everyone understands how the flu, diabetes and heart disease drastically impact our health, but social determinants like income inequality, poor public transportation and housing instability can have an even greater effect on well-being. For example, …