COVID-19 cases continue to plummet, now down in every region of the country, as the FDA

approves childhood vaccines for children aged 5-11.

In a rare move for a pharmaceutical company, Merck, the makers of a new COVID-19 pill

have agreed to share the formula for their drug with lower-income countries.

Senate and House Democrats have agreed to a framework for the buildback better agenda,

but bound to centrists, Democrats are not including paid family leave or Medicare drug

price negotiation.

This is America Dissected, I'm your host, Dr. Abdul-Wel Sayyad.

Let's face it, public health has taken some hard knocks through this pandemic, whether

it's the challenged communications, which we talked about last week, or the politicization,

it's been a tough few years.

So it's worth remembering some of our biggest wins.

One of the biggest was the victory over cigarette smoking.

Only half a century ago, television viewers could hear this.

According to this repeated nationwide survey, more doctors smoke camels than any other cigarette.

Can you imagine a cigarette company being brazen enough to advertise cigarettes with doctors

today?

It's not just that big tobacco's capacity to advertise, particularly to miners, has been

virtually eliminated.

It's also that we've limited where they can sell cigarettes altogether.

We've taxed them, banned smoking indoors, and even in some outdoor settings.

This most of all, we changed the culture around cigarette smoking.

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