Public Health and the Dairy Cow in the Room

Public health, one of the more misunderstood concepts in the health world, is about the health of entire populations, rather than individuals. As a result, public health is closely tied to things like the environment, nutrition, and safety.

One commonality among many of President-elect Donald Trump’s picks to manage federal health agencies is their distrust of the nation’s public health system. With major concerns such as bird flu looming, that sentiment could translate into efforts to undermine those of public health workers.

To illuminate the importance and nuances of public health — and recognizing that public health is best explained at the local level — KFF Health News has partnered with Civic News Company to launch a project called Healthbeat.

In this special episode of KFF Health News’ “What the Health?”, chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner is joined by KFF Health News public health correspondent and Healthbeat national reporter Amy Maxmen, Healthbeat editor-in-chief Charlene Pacenti, and Healthbeat New York City reporter Eliza Fawcett.

Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:

• The covid-19 pandemic revealed the need for a deeper understanding of public health — a data-driven field devoted to the health and well-being of populations. Some of the biggest public health issues of the moment include childhood vaccination rates, and long covid and post-traumatic stress disorder cases among health care workers.
• Bird flu is top of mind for many in public health. While the virus has been around for decades, its transmissibility to cattle is new, and that concerning characteristic emerged in the United States. The outbreak was not contained when it was first observed in a handful of states, and now the question is whether the virus mutates to enable human-to-human transmission — a trait that could make bird flu the next pandemic.
• Many in the public health community are wary of the possibility that Trump and his administration’s officials could gut funding and policies that support the nation’s health — and even non-health policies can hold consequences for health care. For instance, anti-immigration measures could drain the health workforce; many immigrants work as home health aides, nursing home staffers, and more.

Mentioned in this week’s podcast:

• KFF Health News’ “Exclusive: Emails Reveal How Health Departments Struggle To Track Human Cases of Bird Flu,” by Amy Maxmen.
• Healthbeat’s “Georgia Facing Numerous Crises, but Board of Public Health Hasn’t Met Since May,” by Rebecca Grapevine.
• Healthbeat’s “New Yorkers, Meet Your Local Epidemiologist,” by Charlene Pacenti.

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This is original content from KFF Health News a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation), which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.