I spent the week before Easter working on First Opinion from afar, specifically from the town of Carlinville, Illinois, population 5,500, a farming town that's the seat of Macoupin County. I've had the good fortune to witness how this small town has opened its arms to a refugee family in need. With help from Welcome U.S., dozens of individuals, families, and businesses have made it possible for a family displaced from Venezuela to make its way to, and settle into, an unfamiliar landscape of vast flat corn and soybean fields, pig farms, and grain silos, with a classic town square at its center. Those involved in this effort helped the family get housing, found jobs for the parents, and enrolled their smart and mischievous 6-year-old son in school; all are going through the intense and difficult process known as "learning English." I am so impressed by their hard work and drive to succeed.

If every city and town in the U.S. followed suit, it would put at least a small dent in the number of people displaced by conflicts around the world. "Don't look away," urges Sandro Galea, dean of Boston University's School of Public Health, in a recent essay. After seeing what one small town can do, I must agree — and promise to get involved in Boston, where I live.

Immigrant health and rural health have long been topics for First Opinion, and will certainly be again. This week, though, weight-loss drugs took center stage. Dr. Lisa Shah, an internist, took exception to Oprah Winfrey's recent "full-throated endorsement" of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy on national TV. Shah pointed out how the show skimmed over the side effects of these drugs, the need to take them for life, and questioned the long-term utility of medications that may calm not only cravings for food but also less harmful wants — a “quieting of the wanting mind” — like the joy of eating a meal with family. Other authors argued that primary care physicians should be central to diagnosing and treating Alzheimer's disease, chided Medicaid for its discriminatory waiting period for sterilization, and more. You can read them all here.

I'm always keen to read submissions for First Opinion. Please send them to me at first.opinion@statnews.com