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The United States receives tremendous benefits from public health spending — with far more value per dollar than with most other types of health care spending. We reviewed those benefits in a recent article, suggesting that more such spending should be considered. Then Upshot readers weighed in with their choices of what public health campaigns they’d like to see. Those included more help for mothers and babies (the Nurse-Family Partnership), and a greater focus on diabetes, nutrition, gun deaths (including suicide), loneliness and the harms of sharing hypodermic needles. (Austin Frakt and Aaron E. Carroll, 9/4)

Across my social feeds, children of friends across the country have held up signs as they've embarked on their first days of schools in America in 2018. How many have Kevlar backpacks? How many will attend schools with armed guards on patrol? How many will take part in active shooter drills? I feel sorry — wretchedly sorry — for Caroline and her peers posing in all those Instagram and Facebook photos. The days of fretfulness around a stuffed animal will surely seem golden soon. They'll give way to worries about reading and writing, addition and subtraction and lunch and the playground soon enough. But when will those worries give way to a nightmare beyond belief? What then? (Ed Forbes, 9/2)

As the Senate prepares to consider President Trump’s latest nomination to the Supreme Court, and as legal scholars evaluate the various ways that a Justice Brett Kavanaugh could alter abortion access, science has changed the backdrop against which the political and legal drama is playing out. (Chelsea Conaboy, 8/31)

In the movie “Rampage,” the character played by Dwayne Johnson uses a genetic engineering technology called CRISPR to transform a gorilla into a flying dragon-monster with gigantic teeth. Although this is science fiction, not to mention impossible, the movie captures the recent interest and fascination with one of the newest scientific technologies. (Jianhua Luo, 9/3)

It has become customary to gauge the scale of calamities by the official count of the dead. In this perspective, Puerto Rico’s revision of the death toll from last September’s horrific Hurricane Maria to 2,975 from 64 elevates the storm to one of the greatest catastrophes of recent times in the United States, far exceeding Hurricane Katrina and nearly equaling the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. (9/2)

Women in America face two challenges that should embarrass any country, let alone one of the world’s wealthiest: At least one in five can’t afford the tampons and pads required to manage their monthly menstrual cycles, and nobody knows how safe the products really are.In their efforts to address the first, governments can help solve the second, too. Providing infrastructure for public health and hygiene — clean water, sanitation, toilets — is a fundamental government responsibility. Yet the recurring need of roughly half the population for menstrual supplies often goes unrecognized. (Laura Strausfeld, 8/31)

Do liberals only care about the poor when it’s politically convenient? Consider the contrasting reactions to the lead poisoning crises in Flint, Michigan, and New York City’s Housing Authority (Nycha). If you haven’t heard about the problems in New York public housing, you’re not alone. The shocking details have been all but ignored by Democrats and the national media. (8/31)

Considering the lifelong consequences for those affected by childhood lead poisoning, we're not doing enough to prevent it in this toxic city. The consequences include the significant cost of care to support afflicted children with special education services and medical care. (Donna Cooper and Phil Lord, 8/31)