Opening Up Mortality Data for Health Research
Summary
Comprehensive and reliable mortality data is vital for public health research. Improving our infrastructure for managing these data will generate insights that promote longevity and healthy aging, as well as enable more effective response to rapidly evolving public health challenges like those posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. A modernized mortality data system will ultimately be self-sustaining through access fees, but will require federal investment to update state reporting infrastructure and data use agreements. The Biden-Harris administration should launch an effort to modernize our nation’s infrastructure for aggregating, managing, and providing research access to mortality data.
Common frameworks for evaluating proposals leave this utility function implicit, often evaluating aspects of risk, uncertainty, and potential value independently and qualitatively.
The Biden-Harris Administration should facilitate the transition to a clean grid by aggressively supporting utility-scale renewable energy resources in rural areas that are connected to urban centers through modernized high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission.
A just transition from coal to nuclear energy production requires developers to listen and respond to local communities’ concerns and needs through the process of planning, siting, licensing, design, construction, and eventual decommissioning.
Programs across the federal government are working to increase American health by making physical activity safer and more accessible, but most Americans still fail to get enough physical exercise, which has social and economic consequences.