Archive

Perspectives in Primary Care features writing from practitioners, activists, and community members representing organizations, practices, and institutions across the United States and around the world.

Healing Across the Divides: Peace Building Through Health

Shortly after Healing Across the Divides began its work, the Israeli army had placed boulders at the entrance to Sinjil—a Palestinian town in the central West Bank—blocking it off from the outside world. A local Palestinian woman contacted me, persistently urging me to “tell President Bush to end the occupation.” And doing everything possible within my realm of control, I ...

Treating the Opioid Crisis: Current Trends and What’s Next

Throughout the past decade, the U.S. has seen a dramatic shift in addiction medicine research, clinical practice, and related stigma in seeking care. Throughout this piece, we will explore the top six trends related to treating the opioid crisis, and we’ll consider what may be next. The Opioid Epidemic Opioid addiction has existed for centuries. But deaths from opioid overdose in the U.S. have rapidly risen since the 1990s, which started as prescription opioids were prescribed more liberally for ...

Redefining Our Herd: COVID-19 Vaccine as a Human Right for Non-U.S. Citizens

Basic epidemiological terminology has steadily crept into everyday jargon as the COVID-19 pandemic has been raging globally. “Quarantine,” “physical distancing,” “isolation,” “PCR testing,” “rapid testing”—all words that may have otherwise come from a sci-fi movie are now among the many terms dropped in conversations as friends, family members, and ...

Want to Improve COVID-19 Vaccination Rates in Rural America? Start Local…

With the COVID-19 pandemic raging in the United States, rural Americans find themselves trapped in a whirlwind of misinformation and distrust as they seek answers for questions like the following: “Is the pandemic really as bad as the media portrays?”

An Intersectional Approach to Understanding the Mental Health Challenges of America’s Essential Workers

In an effort to flatten the curve and promote containment of the novel coronavirus, many safety precautions have been enacted, including shelter-in-place ordinances. However, several members of the workforce, such as healthcare workers, bus drivers, sanitation workers, cashiers, and fast-food employees, collectively referred to as “essential workers,” have been deemed exempt from such policies. While there is general consensus around the importance of essential workers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been less attention towards the interplay of identity and ...

Lives Cut Short

On February 1, 2021, 22-year-old Ahmad Hijazi, a nursing student from the Palestinian town of Tamra in the Galilee, was killed by Israeli police who opened live fire in his residential neighborhood. About to start working in a Haifa hospital within days, he might ...

The Road to Healing

The United States is now reporting over 440,000 deaths due to COVID-19, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is projecting 490,000 ...