When the world depends on effective public health intervention – and public health does not deliver

When the world depends on effective public health intervention – and public health does not deliver

Jens Holst

The COVID-19 crisis offers both special opportunities and challenges for Public Health. The initial management of the pandemic was dominated by virologists, supported by epidemiologists who did not always meet indispensable scientific requirements. Interdisciplinary and complex Public Health concerns and expertise, however, did not have tangible impact in the COVID-19 debate. Public Health is universal and goes beyond health security as social and other upstream determinants of health play a central role. As an explicitly political concept Public Health must safeguard its broad socio-political approach and obviate all tendency towards biomedical reductionism.   Conflicts of interest: None declared.

2020

Public health, social determinants of health, health security, Public Policy, Power, biomedical reductionism

10.4119/seejph-3469

Epidemiology and Health

Korean Society of Epidemiology

Public aspects of medicine