Daniel Mollenkamp

The United Nations Environment Program released the 2021 Food Waste Index Report on Thursday, the most comprehensive data on food waste across 54 countries.   The report suggests that food waste is a significant problem, which data could help policymakers address.  In 2019, 17% of all food... Read More

The widespread disruptions of COVID led to an unprecedented drop in global greenhouse emissions. However, many post-coronavirus investments are fossil fuel heavy, including those in the U.S., emphasizing the policy commitments that need to be made to capitalize on these emission reductions, said a report from... Read More

WASHINGTON - On Saturday, the Food and Drug Administration gave emergency authorization to a third coronavirus vaccine. This vaccine, unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines which received emergency authorizations in December, is a single shot vaccine.  Placebo-controlled, randomized studies of 43,783 participants across eight countries, including... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration has relaxed the rules around storage and transportation for some coronavirus vaccines in order to speed up the vaccine rollout. Frozen vials of Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine will be allowed to be kept at "conventional temperatures" found in pharmaceutical freezers... Read More

The failure of the prison system to provide adequate mental health care is causing people to kill themselves at high rates, according to a new report.  The report, published in February in the peer-reviewed journal The Lancet, reviewed data from 27 countries, concluding that some of... Read More

WASHINGTON- A report from the Office of the Inspector General recommended that America make safeguarding women's rights in Afghanistan a top priority, describing the fragile nature of gains in equality in the region. The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, John Sopko, the oversight authority... Read More

WASHINGTON - In a public health milestone, the Food and Drug Administration announced on Tuesday that it approved a record setting amount of novel medical devices in 2020.  In 2020, the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health gave the green light to 132 new devices,... Read More

WASHINGTON - Representatives from a DC non-profit say the coronavirus has severely increased the reliance of underprivileged communities on their services, which emphasizes the socially destabilizing impacts of the virus. The DC neighborhoods around the headquarters of Martha's Table, a local DC-based non-profit and volunteer center... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Wilson Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, on Wednesday morning hosted an event explaining the complexities of measuring the presence of marine debris in the environment, focusing on the need to collect more data.  Measuring the problem at hand is linked to managing... Read More

A report in a major peer-reviewed journal described the effects of the Trump administration's policies on public health in the US as devastating, virulently racist, and lethally bad for public health. The report, which was published on Feb. 10 by the Lancet Commission on Public Policy... Read More

WASHINGTON - On Wednesday, Feb. 3, the Congressional "Afghanistan Study Group" released its report on unwinding American commitments in that country, recommending that diplomatic efforts attempt to delay the May 2021 withdrawal date of American troops from the region to ensure the proper conditions for removal.... Read More

The Centers for Disease Control issued a report on Thursday that said LGBTQ people are more at risk of severe coronavirus than the general American population because of underlying health conditions and called for more data to be collected. According to the CDC study, which is... Read More

Two new studies paint a clear picture of the long-lasting, corrosive effects of poor sleep on the brain by linking neighborhood conditions to memory loss and cognitive performance in adolescents.  The first study found that persistent loud noises and other hallmarks of poorer neighborhoods, such as... Read More

A new database will track the neurological symptoms of the coronavirus in an attempt to figure out how it disrupts body systems and impacts neurology.  The COVID-19 Neuro Databank/Biobank will assist clinicians in trying to prevent, manage, and treat the neurological aspects of the coronavirus by... Read More

Merck has withdrawn from the sprint to produce coronavirus vaccines after its two candidates failed to achieve strong results in preliminary trials. The first phase of clinical studies showed that even though the vaccine candidates were "well tolerated" the immune responses triggered by them were "inferior"... Read More

ATLANTA - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put into effect on Tuesday a new order that mandates all air passengers into the US have taken a viral test for coronavirus infection within three days of their flight. Written documentation of either a negative test... Read More

The Brooking Institution’s How We Rise project last week presented the results from its study on the role of social networks and geography in economic mobility, offering data on this important factor for those attempting to understand or improve opportunities for social advancement in the US. ... Read More