Quotes from Leana S. Wen

An effective public-health response requires that those leading the response pivot when new information comes out and change course when unexpected circumstance arise.

Violence can be understood as a public health issue: It spreads from person to person and it can be prevented and treated.

Paid sick leave is a public health necessity. Not only does it allow employees to seek medical care promptly and appropriately, it reduces the chance of spreading infectious diseases to others and enables caregivers to provide for their loved ones.

By definition, outbreaks are quickly evolving situations. Outbreaks with novel diseases bring even more unknowns.

It's unrealistic to expect that your doctor will be at your beck and call 24/7; however, before you leave your doctor's office, he or she should communicate to you how you can get help if necessary.

A covid-19 patient who experiences a substantial drop in oxygen saturation is unstable. It was correct to transfer him to the hospital to watch for signs of deterioration in case he needs further respiratory support.

People of color face more barriers to health care, as do low-income individuals and those living in underserved rural and urban areas.

If the goal is to reduce gun deaths and ensure safe, legal firearm usage, activists on both sides should stop fearing data and start embracing it.

In December of 1990, just before my eighth birthday, I left China for the United States. My father was a political dissident, and after he was released from prison, we joined my mother in a little town in the mountains of Utah. It was quite a change from my hometown of Shanghai, a city of 25 million people.

We really need to be talking about the COVID vaccine the same way that we talk about other vaccinations - which is that it's safe, effective, life-saving and essential for the public's health.

We went through substantial periods of being dependent on some type of government service, whether food stamps, WIC, Medicaid, children's health insurance. And I had an acute awareness as a child of what happens when people go without access to health care. I also had an acute awareness that people's lives were not valued the same.

We came to the U.S. with $40. My parents were both professionals in China who had difficulty finding employment here. They worked multiple jobs, but we still really struggled. There were times when we could not make rent and were dependent on the good graces of people that we met, and sometimes we depended on shelters.

My parents sacrificed everything because they wanted a better life for me and my little sister. That's why we came to the U.S. So it wasn't an option not to step up to those high expectations. So I didn't go to high school. There was an early entrance program at California State in Los Angeles, and I started college at 13.

A cancer diagnosis is a wakeup call that our time is limited.

Growing up, I always thought of hospitals as having a certain mystique that was impenetrable to the outside world. White-coated figures paraded through long hallways and entered doorways marked 'restricted access,' behind which I imagined miracles happened.

For covid-19, we can think of risk through three key variables: proximity, activity and time. The highest-risk scenario is if you are in close proximity with someone who is infected, in an indoor space, for an extended period of time.

Addressing motor vehicle crashes as a public health issue didn't stop people from driving cars, but it did make being on the road a lot safer.

I had this childhood dream that I wanted to be a doctor, but I came from a neighborhood and an environment where nobody around me was a doctor. I literally didn't know how one goes from studying in college to becoming a doctor.

Abortions that occur late in pregnancy are often due to extreme, extenuating circumstances such as when a woman's life is in danger, when there has been a severe fetal diagnosis, or when the pregnancy is not viable.

I don't think that people should have the choice to infect others with a potentially fatal and extremely contagious virus.

The higher the rate of covid-19 in a community, the more likely any one individual you come into contact with has the virus and the riskier your interactions become.

My parents and I entered the U.S. legally, but when it was time for our visa extension, we were turned down. Returning to China meant imprisonment for my father and persecution for my family. We were days from being forced to live here illegally when we were granted political asylum. Other families are not so lucky.

Listening leads to better care, and your doctor should make an effort to hear you out and learn about you.