Imagine the following scenario. You wake up at 3:30 a.m. to get your kids ready for childcare before reporting for your shift at a major retail chain. You take a one-hour bus ride to work, but your manager suddenly calls to cancel your shift.

Connecticut is rapidly emerging as a national leader in the fight against climate change. Having set some of the most ambitious clean energy goals in the nation – pledging to achieve a 100 percent zero carbon electric supply by 2040 – the state is poised to take a significant step forward in achieving that goal.

A year ago it became clear the novel coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19, would spread rapidly, far and wide, become a pandemic, and affect us much like a huge natural disaster or world war —millions of lost jobs, an economy derailed, resources redirected. We also witnessed firsthand how important and effective the biopharma industry is.

So goes our democracy. Making democracy work is not easy — for those who wish to delve into it — it is clear democracy is hard work — but there is no better way to govern — so we will keep at it even when it seems unfair.

When I made the choice to come to Yale for my master of public health degree, I never expected that I’d end up waiting three hours to testify in a public hearing, let alone in support of a bill establishing the right to housing. As a medical student, I am intimately involved with health at the clinical interface. But what does housing have to do with health?