The Time is Now to Protect the Public’s Health

The Time is Now to Protect the Public’s Health

If there ever was a time to address the nation’s need to establish a financially sustainable healthcare system, it is now.  The current pandemic has shed light on just how vulnerable each and every one of us is to succumbing to the coronavirus, while illuminating how unprepared our country is to care for its citizens.  This pandemic has highlighted the need to retool our basic healthcare system, but more importantly it has demonstrated a clear need to rebuild the public health infrastructure which is intended to protect the entire population from communicable diseases in the same way the military is structured to protect us from war.

COVID-19 has created a once in a lifetime opportunity for the United States to right size the ship and stand-up a health care delivery system that addresses our fundamental need to first and foremost, protect the public’s health while addressing the social determinants of health and reducing the financial burden placed on individuals and businesses across this country. The coronavirus has entered our human ecosystem and there is no turning back. 

Many are waiting for it to go away or for the “new normal” to start, when in essence we need to spend our time and energy creating or new normal, including protecting ourselves against the risk of exposure to coronavirus and the inevitable exposure to new pathogens.  As stated so eloquently by well-published virologists, Parrish and Holmes in their 2008 article “Cross-Species Virus Transmission and the Emergence of New Epidemic Diseases”, the risk of known and unknown viruses emerging in humans, in the way that SARS coronavirus, Hendra virus, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), and Ebola have, is dependent on various factors.  We need to understand those factors and address them in order to prevent future outbreaks of grave proportions.

In my opinion, in order to create our new normal, we must first accept that the globalization of our economy is a significant factor in the cause of the current pandemic and likelihood of future ones. The probability of known viruses traveling from an environment, where people and animals have adapted to it, to a new host environment and spreading rapidly is great. And this will continue to happen as travel has become easier and more common, businesses and communities are more interconnected, and our environment is changing with exponential population growth.

Second, it is important to remember that there is a direct correlation between having a weak immune system and being more susceptible to disease.  This is why people with cancer, HIV, diabetes and other autoimmune disorders are at greater risk for common ailments, like the flu and were more likely to acquire and die from coronavirus. For just a moment, consider our society the “host” and coronavirus the pathogen, if the host or society does not have a strong protective layer and the proper safeguards are missing, the host is at risk of getting sick, and the weaker the society is the sicker it gets. In this analogy, our protective layer is our public health system and in this case it is severely weak, almost non-existent - putting the entire community at risk of infection. Due to globalization that infection can spread faster than it ever has before.

The third contributing factor is harder to protect against, but not impossible and it is the fact that coronavirus is new.  This novel virus, and others that will follow it, took us by surprise. We were unable to fight it and we are struggling to make space for it. What we are experiencing now is the shock of having a foreign agent enter our bodies, enter our society that is unfamiliar or “viral.”  Our bodies and our society must either be inoculated or adapt.  Therefore, we need vaccinations and a system of care that can treat the individual who is infected and that can protect the community as a whole.

Once we acknowledge that globalization leads to exposure to novel pathogens leading to increased risk of infection that can only be mitigated if a strong protective layer is in place, we can start strengthening our protective layer.  The time is now to protect society and create the public health system that will enable we to not only vaccinate at scale, but to adapt, so that we can prevent future pandemics.

Given the wealth and innovation that exists in this country, the United States should be leading in our ability to promote health and fight disease. Yet, we were caught off guard when the coronavirus hit.  Barriers to standing up a formidable public health infrastructure range from cultural norms and a sense of invincibility to economics that financially incents treating the sick and de-prioritizes the economic value of prevention and wellness to a society. The speed and intensity by which the coronavirus struck the nation is a wake-up call that we cannot ignore.  We must change or attitude and fix our priorities, so that behaviors and finances are aligned with the outcome we want to achieve in our new normal and I am making the assumption that the desired outcome is health, both physical and economic.

In the global fight against COVID-19’s impact, some may say that the virus has won. However, if we move quickly and deliberately to build a system that protects the public’s health by constantly and consistently monitoring viral threats, by protecting us from communicable diseases, and by preventing and treating chronic disease, we would have created our new normal.  The new normal being a demonstration of our ability to adapt and create the protection we need to withstand future threats from coronavirus and the many others lurking around the corner.

Author: Carladenise Edwards , MS.Ed., Ph.D.