Results highlighted several sociodemographic correlates to not meeting 5-a-day requirement among six Asian-American subgroups. Targeted health promotion measures for such at-risk groups should be implemented to improve dietary practices.

According to WHO, one of the most effective ways to protect people against COVID-19 is with the use of vaccines. As academic institutions prepare to fully re-open in the fall of 2021 and COVID-19 vaccines being readily accessible to all ages twelve and older in the U.S., college students are also getting ready to go back to normal campus operations for traditional in-person education. This raises the need to assess students’ attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccines by identifying and addressing reasons for their hesitancy. One major threat to the impact of vaccination in preventing disease and deaths from COVID-19 is low utilization of vaccines by some groups. We conducted a pilot study and interviewed 55 undergraduate science students enrolled in summer school in 2021. The majority of the students were female, younger, Hispanic, or Latino, and at the junior or senior level. More than half of them have been vaccinated (62%) and indicated that it is important to attend classes while vaccinated (75%). While there were a variety of reasons for hesitancy ranging from lack of concern to lack of initiative, 17% of participants stated that religion played a role in their decision. Evidence-based recommendations strategies based on religion, ethical, and social implications are provided.

Counterfeit drugs are a global problem and a public health hazard. Nearly 10 percent of all medicines sold worldwide are fake, leading to an estimated 100,000 deaths each year, equating to an additional economic burden of close to $200 billion annually. Counterfeit medicines also thwart public health efforts to control infectious diseases like Covid-19 and Tuberculosis and lead to the worsening of other public health crises such as anti-microbial resistance (AMR). According to the CDC, more than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections in the U.S each year, with more than 35,000 people dying, have been reported. Globalization and the internet's expansion have led to the rapid spreading of poor-quality medicines due to the high demand for cheap goods and lack of access - before adequate detection and intervention are possible. Moreover, selling counterfeit medicine is more profitable with lesser penalties, even in the U.S. As a clandestine market, there is no precise magnitude of how the counterfeit-medicine market flows. The WHO is alarmed by the lack of available data to demonstrate the extent and impact of fake/substandard medicines. Controlling counterfeit drugs' availability will not be easy; however, it has become necessary to protect public and global health. Through the lens of a case in Bangladesh that demonstrates how easy it is to sell and get away with selling fake medicines in developing countries - this paper discusses how counterfeit medicines negatively contribute significantly to human lives and sufferings in developing and developed countries. No single policy will be effective based on the different issues faced on multiple fronts due to fake/substandard medicines. However, a broad-based concerted effort across the various stakeholders to combat this counterfeit drug problem and secure the global supply chain is urgently needed.

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Advances in medical technology have not only raised our expectations that medicine can perform miracles and keep us alive; it has also raised conflicts in allowing death to take its natural course. Many dilemmas are faced by physicians as well as families in end-of-life care and relieving the suffering. Ethical dilemmas about how to ensure individuals with terminal illness/end-of-life experience a “peaceful death,” when the meaning and perception of death has changed due to technology? In the past, death was expected and accepted, with rituals. Today, death has been reduced to an unheard phenomenon - shameful and forbidden. The advances in technology brought with it a change in culture of medicine from caring to curing, where medicine is expected to heal any disease. This advance has also acted as a double-edged sword, where longer lives come at the price of greater suffering, illness, and higher costs. While most Americans want to die at home, surrounded by loved ones - the “medicalization” of death does not allow the natural course of death to take place. Although recent studies indicate that more Americans are dying at home, most people still die in hospital beds – alone. This paper looks at the transition that took place in the concept of death and dying, and the impacts of technology, and makes suggestions for facilitating a “peaceful death” in the twenty-first century.

According to the CDC Health Alert Network, as of September 27, 2021, more than 125,000 confirmed laboratory cases of COVID-19 were reported among pregnant women that resulted in more than 22,000 hospitalized cases and 161 deaths, with the highest death toll of 22 women in the month of August 2021 alone. There are many adverse pregnancy outcomes that have been reported among pregnant women who have contracted COVID-19 including severe illness, stillbirth, preterm birth, neonates’ hospital admissions into Intensive Care Units (ICUs), and death. Just one-third of pregnant women were fully vaccinated before or during pregnancy as of mid-September 2021. Evidence about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy, although limited, has been growing. The COVID-19 vaccine is recommended for pregnant women and those who are breastfeeding. This study examines ethical and practical implications of the COVID-19 vaccine among pregnant women. In this paper, we reviewed and presented 16 cases of pregnant women who were either vaccinated or unvaccinated against COVID-19 and share their health outcomes as retrieved from media sources. The findings mirror what the literature reports on the state of COVID-19 among pregnant women. Negative outcomes reported in the literature were also reported in our case reviews. This study presents a framework that will guide providers with messaging and provide information to help pregnant women make informed decisions about getting the COVID-19 vaccine.