How Costa Rica became a global health leader: Q&A with President Carlos Alvarado Quesada

When I sat down to interview Carlos Alvarado Quesada, president of Costa Rica from 2018 to 2022, I didn't expect to spend 20 minutes chatting about playing the guitar and composing music on GarageBand (turns out, we're both musicians). “It helped me deal with stress,” he said about his musical compositions. “But [composing] also brings out another part of my brain and myself.”

A former journalist, musician, and fiction writer, Alvarado says the pursuit of creative possibility is what has kept him going over the years, and proved essential to carrying out his country’s response to the first two years of the pandemic with measures like imposing temporary restrictions on vehicle movement instead of lockdowns.

President Alvarado says he built on what he calls Costa Rica’s “strong legacy of public health” to keep case and fatality counts low. He spoke with me about those first days and weeks of the pandemic, how the public health system was tested in unprecedented ways, and what the future holds for public health in Costa Rica.

• How Costa Rica became a global health leader: A Q&A with President Carlos Alvarado Quesada | Christine Mehta

More from HPH

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy made a splash on May 1 when he published a first-of-its-kind report on our “epidemic of loneliness and isolation” in America. “Given the profound consequences of loneliness and isolation, we have an opportunity, and an obligation, to make the same investments in addressing social connection that we have made in addressing tobacco use, obesity, and the addiction crisis,” Murthy writes in the report. More than half of Americans reported suffering from loneliness in 2021.

There’s no dearth of debate, discussion, and disagreement about the nature and causes of loneliness in society today, and its severe, negative impacts on our physical and mental health. But there is a shortage of meaningful solutions. We talked to experts about specific programs they’ve seen hold promise for easing loneliness, and approaches taken in other countries to fight isolation.

• Experts weigh in on surgeon general's fight against loneliness | Maura Kelly

In case you missed it

Last week, the U.S. ended its COVID-19 public health emergency. Could our nascent public health weather alert system disappear post-pandemic?

• Will COVID-19 mark the highwater point for sewage surveillance? | Pingping Yin

Doctors and dentists are missing opportunities to prevent and treat ailments like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and HIV by working together. Better data may be the key.

• Here’s how to put teeth in the U.S.’s response to diabetes | Kiltesh Patel

What we’re reading this week

The CDC takes a step toward virus-free air in schools and offices | The Washington Post

• Related:?A healthy building starts with better ventilation | Joseph G. Allen

Chocolate milk faces potential ban in school cafeterias? | Wall Street Journal

“The disease will be neglected”: scientists react to WHO ending mpox emergency | Nature

Not all U.S. states struggled equally against COVID-19 | Think Global Health

How to talk about pregnancy loss | Vox

Meet the women working to grow local food systems on U.S. island territories | The 19th

Protecting survivors from violent partners and their guns | Yes!

Washington state now has the nation’s strongest law against toxic cosmetics | Grist

• Related: We can’t stop at water—it’s time to kick PFAS out of our makeup | Shruthi Mahalingaiah

See you next week!

—Christine