Category: Op-Ed

Saving Lives, Saving Costs: Why Missouri Taxpayers Should Care About Homeless Interventions

Image of encampment under a bridge.

Research indicates that for every dollar allocated to Housing First, $1.44 is recouped in related public savings. Similarly, every dollar invested in medical respite yields a return of $1.81 in reduced hospital expenditures. The vast majority of evidence indicates that the long-term savings generated by these programs far exceed the initial spending and create sustainable models for addressing homelessness and reducing healthcare costs. So, while skepticism or hesitation regarding the initial investments required to establish these programs is understandable, it is clear that the cost of inaction is far greater.

Environmental Rollbacks in the Trump Era: Why we need serious policy interventions

A recent New York Times analysis reports that the Trump Administration is in the process of rolling back at least 95 different environmental laws and regulations. Many of these rollbacks target Obama- and even Clinton-era rules that were mandated to mitigate climate change and curb ecological pollution. Out of the 95 rollbacks, 58  have been […]

A Clear Choice Amid All the “Smoke”

Lung injuries associated with e-cigarettes, or vaping, have now surpassed 2200. By the end of July, fewer than 200 patients had been admitted for e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated lung injury (EVALI). Although the explosion of cases arises partly from the growing awareness and diagnosis of EVALI, this outbreak indicates that the use of these […]

Federal Restrictions on Access to Fetal Tissue Threaten Medical Research

On June 5th, the Trump administration announced extreme restrictions on lifesaving medical research. Under the administration’s new policy, researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have been forced to halt any research that utilizes human fetal tissue acquired from elective abortions. Additionally, funding for this type of research has become far more difficult for scientists […]

“Necessity” of Red Tape Handcuffs Scientists

Before coming to WashU, I was a PhD student in Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), a premier research institute in India. Being a fifth-year student, I was working with a tight deadline and could not wait to finally begin collecting data. But life as a researcher is not so easy and straightforward. I […]

Genetics, Genealogy, and Personal Privacy

On TV, DNA evidence is portrayed as a slam-dunk way to pin a suspect to a crime. But what if you have DNA, but no suspect? In April 2018, Joseph James DeAngelo, better known as the “Golden State Killer,” was arrested over 30 years after committing burglaries, rapes, and murders that terrorized Californians. This arrest was […]

Puzzle Pieces

One of the most pressing tasks for scientists of any era is the reconciliation of research with the public good. This call must be answered both socially, by an understandable dialogue between academia and society, and cautiously, with a careful eye on the relevance of our work.  Socially, science speaks its own language. Today’s scientific […]