Public Policy

As the planet continues to warm, multi-day heat waves are projected to increase in frequency, length and intensity. The additive effects of these extreme heat events overwhelm emergency service providers and hospital staff with heat-related maladies, disrupt the electrical grid and can even cause delays in air travel.

But existing studies do not consider the increased loss of life and economic hardship that could come from back-to-back — or compound — heat waves, which bring cycles of sweltering temperatures with only brief periods of normal conditions in between.

The Great Recession hit Americans across the socioeconomic spectrum, with some still working to recover economically. Yet, the drivers behind these socioeconomic divides were mounting before the decline even hit, according to a paperpublished in PLOS ONE.

Health care-associated infections — illnesses that people contract while being treated in a hospital or other health care facility — sicken millions of people each year and cost billions of dollars in additional treatment. While there has been some improvement over the years, on any given day, about 3 percent of the hospitalized population in the United States has at least one health care-associated infection, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

Today, only half of children grow up to earn more than their parents, as opportunities for upward mobility continue to decline. Meanwhile, more than 15 percent of children live in poverty.

Understanding what is behind these problems has been a challenge, as each pocket of the United States faces particular struggles. The American Voices Project will make it possible to take these local differences into account.