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Best of 2020: PATH’s most-read articles

January 13, 2021 by PATH

These articles asked and answered tough questions—and their insights remain relevant today.

In Laos, Orladee Nonnavongsa alights a motorbike and dons her mask to deliver Japanese Encephalitis vaccines. Vaccines need a strong support system to reach the communities that need them most. Photo: PATH/Aaron Joel Santos.

In Laos, nurse Orladee Nonnavongsa dons her mask and prepares to deliver Japanese encephalitis vaccines. All vaccines need strong support systems to reach the communities that need them most. Photo: PATH/Aaron Joel Santos.

In 2020, public health was thrust into the spotlight as COVID-19 spread around the world. Here at PATH, we continued doing what we always do: developing and scaling health solutions, forging partnerships, advocating for equity—and writing about it along the way.

Last year, hundreds of thousands of people read articles on path.org. Our global team—spanning more than 70 countries—contributed to these articles, helping our writers and editors deliver information that is evidence-based, thoughtful, representative, and just. These values were especially important in 2020, as the world demonstrated against systemic racism and health communicators everywhere battled misinformation.

We published 89 articles in 2020, but those most read aren’t surprising. These pieces made epidemiology accessible, asking and answering important questions about COVID-19 vaccines and the pandemic response. They also explored how to be more ethical in the way we write about our work.

  1. What is “the curve”? Making sense of COVID-19 models.
    In 2020, everyone became an armchair epidemiologist. Anna Volbrecht and Hannah Slater were there to help, making understanding the models look easy.

  2. Lessons for COVID-19: What pneumonia treatment can teach us.
    Lauren Newhouse outlines how, though the virus may be novel, we can look to experience treating pneumonia to guide COVID-19 care.

  3. 4 lessons from Kerala on how to effectively control COVID-19.
    Dr. Shibu Vijayan explains how one state in India took the lead in COVID-19 response, prioritizing empathy and responsiveness to stop the spread.

  4. How we talk about public health and why it matters.
    David Verga explores some of the words we use—and don’t use—to talk about public health, and how specificity can make our language more responsible.

  5. When a COVID-19 vaccine is ready, will the world be?
    An early look at the challenges (and potential solutions) to global vaccination against COVID-19.

Thank you for reading along with us. We look forward to writing and collaborating more in 2021. Follow us on Twitter at @PATHtweets to read more, and feel free to reach out with feedback or ideas.