The Hill Op-ed: A fresh approach to fighting America’s opioids epidemic
November 10, 2021
Even as vaccination rates slowly climb, another deadly health crisis has been getting worse: The overdose epidemic. Last year, a record number of Americans died from drug overdoses: 93,000. That’s 254 people a day, or more than 10 every hour. Three-quarters of them died from opioids, often by unknowingly using drugs laced with fentanyl.
Read moreThe Associated Press: Bloomberg pledges $120 million to curb drug overdose deaths
November 10, 2021
Michael Bloomberg will spend $120 million in an effort to reduce the soaring numbers of deaths from drug overdoses, he announced today at a healthcare summit he organized. The pledge more than doubles the $50-million philanthropic commitment he made toward the same goal in 2018.
Bloomberg’s pledge follows a preliminary finding from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that 93,000 people had died from drug overdoses in 2020, the majority of them from using opioids.
Read moreThe 74 Million: Fueled by Grants, States Bet Innovative Career Training Programs Will Lure Disengaged Youth Back to School After COVID — Starting in Middle School
November 9, 2021
Could student-run vertical farms — hyper-efficient, clean facilities where produce grows up on racks, instead of out across fields — help stabilize small cities in northwest Tennessee?
Could apprenticeships with local chefs keep disaffected Delaware teens in high school and reopen the state’s restaurants, the source of one-tenth of its jobs?
What if a paycheck earned during high school, and the promise of a better one after attaining a credential in a field where good jobs are going begging, motivates a young person who left school during COVID-19 to come back?
Read moreYahoo! Op-ed: The most ambitious climate action plan ever attempted, according to Michael Bloomberg
November 1, 2021
As heads of state gather in Glasgow, Scotland for a climate summit, much of the news will focus on nations setting carbon-reduction goals for decades down the road — long after those making the promises will be out of office.
Setting ambitious long-term goals is good, but not good enough. Because more important than any promise countries make about 2050 is what they do between now and 2030. And what’s most important is what they do over the next few years about the biggest problem of all: coal.
Read moreEl Tiempo Op-ed: A second decade to fight a silent pandemic
October 28, 2021
As the world has been battling the deadly COVID-19 virus, another pandemic has continued to leave its own trail of devastation: road crashes. Although we know what the policies and practices are to prevent them, neither governments nor society have done enough to deal with this problem definitively.
Read moreEvening Standard Op-ed: Together we’re fighting the toxic air crisis crippling London
October 12, 2021
The quality of air you breathe should not be dictated by the neighbourhood you live in, or the colour of your skin. That simple idea — that everyone should be able to breathe without getting sick — is what helped to bring us together to fight air pollution in London.
Read moreProject Syndicate Op-ed: Ending the Drowning Epidemic
August 12, 2021
Drowning kills more than 80,000 children globally each year and is one of the top ten causes of death for people under 25 in every region of the world. These deaths are especially unacceptable because they can be prevented with relatively simple measures.
Read moreThe New York Times: Taking Art to the Streets, Just Look Down
May 20, 2021
Reno is one of 16 small and midsize cities across the country where artists and local residents are taking to the streets — from crosswalks to underpasses — to add new color to old blacktop and pavement with eye-catching urban art as part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Asphalt Art Initiative. Grants of up to $25,000 are helping cities create and implement relatively low-cost public art projects to revitalize their streets and public spaces by making them more beautiful, more inviting and safer.
Read moreThe Washington Post: Bloomberg is giving Johns Hopkins $150 million to diversify science PhD programs
May 11, 2021
Hopkins President Ronald J. Daniels said the new gift will enable the university to tackle a “striking and persistent disparity” in graduate education. For generations, PhD programs, especially in science and engineering, have lagged in recruiting Black, Latino and Native American students. “Over the last 20-plus years, report after report, committee after committee, has lamented the lack of progress,” Daniels said.
Read moreReuters: Funding boost for cities to reach COVID-19 vaccine skeptics and vulnerable
May 6, 2021
18 African, Asian and Latin American countries will each receive $50,000 from the charity Bloomberg Philanthropies to creatively tackle misinformation and logistical bottlenecks in a bid to get more people vaccinated and save lives.
“We simply will not end the pandemic anywhere until we end it everywhere,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) which has partnered with Bloomberg Philanthropies to support the cities.
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