Harvard Chan School panel looks at challenges for rural America
The opioid crisis competes with the economy as the most pressing issue in rural America, according to a new poll conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Experts met at the Chan School on Friday to assess the poll’s implications and propose solutions in a panel discussion moderated by NPR correspondent Joe Neel. Robert Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis, described the results as both surprising and disturbing. “If you’re in the polling world, you rarely ever hear people say that the biggest problem in their community is a health problem,” he said. But the U.S. opioid crisis is now so widespread that one of every four respondents knew someone who was affected. The data on drug use shows clear overlap with economic problems. “Fifty-five percent of people said that the economy where they lived was fair or poor,” Blendon said. “So these...