Data & Evidence

The outcome of the upcoming presidential election between Vice President Harris and former President Trump will have a strong impact on the lives of many Americans. During election season, public health is always on the ballot. We have asked our experts in topics such as abortion, drug policy, preemption, and employment law to share what they're watching for, the outcomes or changes they hope to see after the election, and possible impacts on the policy landscape surrounding these public health issues.

Center for Public Health Law Research (CPHLR) conducted a Q&A with Deputy Director Lindsay Cloud, JD, PhD(c), an expert in intimate partner violence and public health law.

As we mark International Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31, celebrating people who are transgender and their contributions to our communities, the day also serves as an opportunity to raise awareness of the ongoing discrimination faced by trans people, particularly in the form of legislation in the United States.  

Americans are deeply in debt. In the fourth quarter of 2023, total household debt increased by $212 billion to reach $17.5 trillion, according to a report by the Center for Microeconomic Data.

Harm reduction in the context of the opioid crisis is focused on preventing overdose and infectious disease transmission by working with people who use drugs without moral judgment. Far too often, the public health imperative of harm reduction is blocked by federal policy, state laws, and other structural barriers anchored in the “war on drugs” that reduce the effectiveness of harm reduction efforts. To maximize the potential of harm reduction requires a whole-of-government approach, involving coordination across levels of government.

There is a well-established whole of government response to drug policing centered around the “war on drugs.” However, the existing response is largely built on flawed policies that have resulted in mass incarceration, structural racism, and lagging improvements in treatment and harm reduction related to the opioid crisis. Policy changes must be considered to replace acknowledged failures and reimagine the whole of government response to drug policing.

Act for Public Health's October Legislative Update covered the newly released vaccine bill tracking data from the Temple University Center for Public Health Law Research (CPHLR), highlighting trends and examples across the widespread legal activity surrounding vaccine law during the 2023 legislative session.  

Shane Reader from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health, recently published research in Drug and Alcohol Dependence that reveals patterns in implementation, facilitates future evaluations, and produces a roadmap for the dimension reduction of further policy surveillance datasets related to harm reduction and drug use.