"We know how to keep women and girls safe in outbreak situations," Lindsay Stark, Co-Director of the Center for Violence and Injury Prevention at Washington University, told CG. "We simply need the political buy-in and financial resources to ensure we do not repeat the mistakes of past responses."
CG has previously covered the potential gendered impacts of exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. The synthetic chemicals — also known as "forever chemicals" for their staying power in habitats and human bodies — have been linked to serious health conditions, including cancers, autoimmune disorders, and reproductive health concerns.
This week, according to the New York Times, the administration "will drop some limits on 'forever chemicals' in drinking water … angering some key activists who had supported President Trump's campaign" and his pledge to "Make America Healthy Again."
In January, CG highlighted some of the intersectional harms of artificial intelligence — a rapidly expanding technology that, while being powered by energy- and water-hungry data centers, has been used in countries around the world to generate nonconsensual sexualized deepfakes, which have then been shared on social media.
As of May 19, The 19th reported, 2025's Take It Down Act has gone into full effect for social platforms used across the U.S. "There must be a plain-language form for anyone or authorized representative to report nonconsensual images of themselves," according to the outlet's coverage of the bipartisan law. "Platforms then must remove the content within 48 hours and inform the person about removal progress."
Amid a deadly Ebola outbreak in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, new research is pointing to a connection between just this type of infectious disease and another type of epidemic: gender-based violence.
And as with the most effective strategies for controlling infection, early action may be key to addressing the linked crisis of violence against women and girls.
"We need to be thinking about [their] safety from the very beginning of an outbreak," said Lindsay Stark, lead author of the study, in an email to CG. Stark is a Professor of Public Health at Washington University, where she also co-directs the Center for Violence and Injury Prevention.
The systematic review, published in BMJ Global Health earlier this month, "provides the first comprehensive synthesis of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and Ebola outbreaks on [violence against women and girls]," according to the co-authors, who cite climate change, urbanization, and changes in land use among the conditions driving outbreaks. Read more...
Researchers say the hantavirus may have greater staying power than expected in some human hosts.
The recent outbreak aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship has heightened the urgency of questions that remain about the potentially fatal disease, which can cause respiratory problems and flu-like symptoms.
Thought generally to spread through inhalation or ingestion of urine, feces, and saliva from infected rodents, climate shifts and habitat changes affecting the animals may impact transmission rates. Meanwhile, the Andes strain — confirmed to have affected the ship's passengers — appears capable of human-to-human transmission, raising more concerns about contagion timelines.
Some previous research has found that the Andes strain may remain detectable in bodily fluids for years after exposure. Scientific American reported on a single study published in Viruses in 2023 that found the virus's RNA present in the semen of a Swiss man in 2022 after he tested positive in 2016 following travels in South America.
But researchers stress this doesn't necessarily mean an infected person will remain contagious for extended periods or transmit the disease sexually.
Still, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has encouraged people to "[avoid] kissing and sexual contact with someone who may have Andes virus" to reduce the risks of transmission. This is likely intended to reduce the risk of inhaling or otherwise ingesting saliva droplets while in close personal contact with an infected person. Read more...
Extreme heat is the world's deadliest weather-related threat. Now, a new free service aims to connect those working to help their communities stay safe amid intensifying heat waves with experts in thermophysiology, public health, urban planning, gender equality, and more.
"The [Heat Science] Hotline, in particular, [stands] out because it focuses not only on generating awareness, but on helping people make practical, evidence-informed decisions in real time — which is exactly what frontline providers and communities need right now," Neha Mankani told CG in an email.
Mankani, who is based in Pakistan, is the Humanitarian Engagement and Climate Advisor for the International Confederation of Midwives and a Co-Chair of the Heat Science Hotline launched last month by the women-led climate adaptation organization HERA. The initiative aligns with the organization's mission "to protect the health, income, and dignity of women on the frontlines of extreme heat." Read more...
This digest was curated, reported, and edited by Gracie Leavitt and Kirsten Krueger.
One goal at Climate, Gendered is to bring a spotlight to the reality that proliferating pollution, increasing temperatures, rising seas, extreme weather, habitat loss, and more can uniquely and disproportionately impact girls, women, trans communities, and nonbinary people — especially those from communities of color, Indigenous people, disabled people, immigrants and displaced people, people experiencing poverty, and residents of low- and middle-income countries. We're also interested in the climate crises and concerns that can disproportionately affect men and boys.
This work cannot be done alone or in silos. We appreciate your feedback and observations. And please feel encouraged to share one way you noticed this week that climate and gender connect — and share CG with a friend.
"Pollution and climate shifts make the regular stressors more extreme and add new stressors," Jamie DeWitt, study co-author and Director of the Pacific Northwest Center for Translational Environmental Health Research at Oregon State University, told CG.
"There is nothing safe about forcing patients to drive through winter storms or snowy mountain passes to pick up a pill that's just as safe for them to get in the mail and that, either way, they'll take at home," Jenna Hudson, Senior Counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, told CG.
"The module also emphasizes the critical role of midwives as frontline responders in climate-affected communities," the International Confederation of Midwives and Maternity Foundation told CG.
"As climate change gets worse ... people are going to be experiencing multiple hazards over their lifetime … experiencing multiple of these hazards might affect people's choices," Meg "Bee" Brown, lead author of a study on how extreme weather is impacting contraceptive preferences and use, told CG.
