Five Conditions for Success in Public Health, India’s Gig Workers, and Africa’s New Public Health Order

Editor's Note

Following a string of infectious disease outbreaks across the globe, Tom Frieden, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, looks for ways to improve health organizations. In his piece, Dr. Frieden lists five strategies for success in public health: gathering good data; rigorously analyzing that data; generating sensible guidance; getting broad buy-in; and adopting an iterative policy process of implementing, learning, and improving as you go.

The tragic death of a food delivery worker in an upper-class neighborhood in India has sparked a controversy over the obstacles that gig workers face to health care in that country. Our next contributor says neglecting the growing gig worker population and barring them from the same government benefits other workers receive sets them up for failure and marginalization.

Our third article comes from a team of authors from Kenya, Nigeria, and the United Kingdom, and it outlines the role that the World Bank's new Pandemic Fund should play in supporting Africa's drive toward self-sufficiency in response to future disease outbreaks.

Wrapping up the week, our last piece explores the intersection between spirituality, religion, and mental health, and how it has begun to inform evidence-based clinical care.

As always, thank you for reading. —Thomas Bollyky, Editor.