Today’s Top Good News Story

The inaugural class of doctors just graduated a first-of-its-kind medical school in Cherokee Nation

The first physician training program on a Native American reservation and affiliated with a tribal government just graduated its inaugural class of doctors.

Nine Native people just graduated from Oklahoma State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine at the Cherokee Nation, making up over 20% of the 46 total students.

Another 15 Native students are graduating from the university’s campus in Tulsa. Together, the graduates represent 14 different tribes, including Cherokee Choctaw, Alaska Native, and Seminole.

Why is this good news? These new doctors will help address the nationwide shortage of Indigenous doctors. Of the approximately 841,000 active physicians in the U.S., nearly 2,500 are Native American — just 0.3%. That shortage currently leads to a lack of “quality and timely care” at Indian Health Service clinics.

With a campus right in Cherokee Nation, students also get real-life experience caring for Indigenous patients.

→ Read more​

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More Good News

​Indian Railways is about to be 100% electric, making it the largest green railway in the world. Electrification is happening over nine times faster than what it was a decade ago, from 1.42 km per day in 2014-15 to about 19.6 km per day in 2023-24.

​The Central African Republic just became the first country to receive thousands of doses of a new malaria vaccine. Recommended by the WHO last October, a total of 43,000 doses arrived by air today from UNICEF, and another 120,000 are scheduled to show up in the coming days.

​Scientists just achieved a new breakthrough in a non-hormonal, reversible, non-toxic male birth control. They were successfully ablet o target a protein crucial to making fertile sperm, giving men control over their protection window.

Good Progress To Celebrate

The number of polio cases has dropped to 4,000 globally — a 100-fold decrease from 400,000 in the 1980s

Thanks to effective vaccination campaigns using two types of vaccines as well as improved access to clean water and sanitation — the number of annual cases of polio has dropped dramatically in recent decades.

In the 1980s, there were as many as 400,000 cases of polio globally — that number has declined to 4,000 in the last few years. That improvement has meant millions of children won’t experience lifelong paralysis.

Globally, we are close to eradicating all three types of wild poliovirus, with wild poliovirus serotypes 2 and 3 eliminated and only six reported cases of serotype 1 reported globally.

New vaccines are being administered to address the remaining cases, and eradicate the last stubborn cases — closing the chapter on polio globally once and for all.

→ Read more​

environment

​To address the environmental impacts of toilet paper, major companies are rolling out more eco-friendly alternatives. Making TP is an energy- and water-intensive process that requires toxic PFAS and other chemicals, and can be an insoluble pollutant that resists wastewater treatment.

​New EPA regulations close loopholes that have allowed coal-fired power plants to pollute the air and water for decades. While clean energy alternatives are rapidly growing, fossil fuel plants still generate 60% of the U.S. electricity supply — the new rules will help address the pollutants they produce.

​The first of its kind in the U.S., Vermont just passed a bill requiring fossil fuel companies to help pay for destruction caused by climate-fueled extreme weather. The money will go toward modernizing infrastructure, cleaning up after storms, addressing public health costs of climate change, and more.

GOOD THOUGHTS

When the news is particularly devastating, horrific, and heartbreaking — like what’s happening in Rafah — a natural response can be to disengage, protect, and distance ourselves from it.

While there is a genuine case for protecting our mental health, we must do that carefully and thoughtfully — so that we can eventually re-engage in the fight for a better world, not detach from it.

Because the privilege of experiencing tragedy through the news rather than first-hand comes with the responsibility to use that privilege for good.

More Good bits

🎸 Today’s the last day to support a good cause — and win a trip to Bonnaroo doing it.​

❤️ An anonymous Helper is making a state’s first youth center a reality.​​

💸 California’s new tax on firearms could help prevent gun violence.

🪟 When can we replace all our windows, please and thank you?

🏳️‍🌈 Good news for LGBTQ+ National Park Service employees!​

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What’s good?

I typically make an annual trip back to my home state to attend the Summerfest music festival.

Have you ever attended a music festival? (If so, which one?!)

Reply to this email and let me know!

— Megan