United States

This archive collects solutions-journalism stories and milestones from the United States — covering policy wins, community-led efforts, scientific advances, and social progress happening across the country. Each entry highlights what’s working and why it matters.

Fungal infection under microscope, for article on pan-fungal vaccine

First vaccine to target deadly fungal infections passes preclinical tests

By / / Good News For Humankind

Fungal infections kill an estimated 1.6 million people every year, yet until now no vaccine has ever existed for any of the major culprits. Researchers at the University of Georgia have developed a single shot that trains the immune system to recognize all three deadliest fungal genera simultaneously — a feat never before demonstrated in peer-reviewed research. Crucially, it reduced illness and death in immunocompromised animals, the very people most at risk. For a disease category the WHO only recently recognized as a global emergency, this candidate offers the first real hope of prevention.\n\n*(Word count: 88)*

Aerial view of Tongass National Forest, for article on Tongass National Forest roadless rule

Biden restores protections to Alaska’s Tongass National Forest

By / / Good News For Humankind

Alaska’s Tongass National Forest is once again off-limits to logging and new road construction, after the USDA restored protections across the 17-million-acre rainforest — a landscape slightly larger than West Virginia that holds nearly half of all carbon stored in U.S. national forests. Tribal Nations in Southeast Alaska, including the Organized Village of Kake, led the years-long push to bring the safeguards back. For communities who have hunted, fished, and lived among the 800-year-old cedars and wild salmon streams for thousands of years, it’s a hard-won recognition. The victory also points to something bigger: protecting old-growth forests at scale is one of the most affordable, ready-now climate tools we have — no new technology required, just the will to leave ancient places standing.

Vials and syringes in a lab, for article on not-for-profit drug access

Pfizer to sell all its drugs in 45 low-income countries at non-profit price

By / / Good News For Humankind

Pfizer’s not-for-profit pricing pledge now spans all 500 of its medicines — including chemotherapy and oral cancer treatments — across 45 of the world’s lowest-income countries. That’s a major expansion of an accord the company launched in 2022, which originally covered only patented drugs. By including off-patent medicines too, Pfizer is acknowledging that even decades-old cancer treatments often remain out of reach where generic supply chains never took hold. For patients across much of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where cancer and heart disease are rising fast, this could quietly move the floor on what’s possible. And when the world’s largest drugmaker makes a move this broad, the rest of the industry tends to notice.

Cannabis being weighed, for article on legal cannabis dispensary, for article on Germany cannabis legalization

New York opens its first legal recreational cannabis dispensary

By / / Good News For Humankind

New York’s first legal recreational cannabis dispensary opened with a meaningful twist: the very first retail license went to Housing Works, a nonprofit that serves people with HIV, homeless New Yorkers, and the formerly incarcerated. Revenue from the shop will flow back into those social services, turning a newly legal market into direct support for communities hit hardest by the war on drugs. New York reserved its earliest licenses for nonprofits, people with past marijuana convictions and their families, women- and minority-owned businesses, and veterans, backed by a $200 million equity fund. It’s an ambitious bet that legalization can repair harm rather than just generate profit, and other states are paying close attention.