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In the year On August 23, Director Rochelle Wallensky called for a change in the way the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) do their work.
“In these times of pandemic, we find ourselves having to speak to a wider audience.” She said. We didn’t have to convince a scientific audience—we had to convince the American public.
This change is critical if CDC’s efforts are to better understand, address, and combat the challenges affecting the health of the American public. Moreover, this change gives the current historical closeness Life expectancy decreases In the United States, according to the report of the National Center for Health Statistics, a week after Walansky’s statement.
The literature is replete with scientific knowledge on the ways infectious agents such as viruses have evolved to cause disease in humans. Data suggest Environmental conditions, including climate change and deforestation, allow bacteria to change their genetic makeup enough to make us sick when they enter our system.
Other new pathogens, such as SARS-CoV-2, may be activated by the virus that causes Covid-19. Zoological transition As people increasingly interact with infected animals. of A virus that causes monkeypox It has been transmitted from mice to chimpanzees to humans. HIV A similar pattern is followed. These biological transmissions are common and our ability to control these diseases in humans has been improved by the development of treatments and vaccines.
Here’s the good news.
The bad news is that the spread of infectious diseases is based on human behavior. Risky health behaviors, such as being unvaccinated or having unprotected sex, are predicated on social and structural factors that shape people’s actions and feelings.
If we are to emerge from a new era of epidemics without losing millions more lives, we must develop biomedical strategies to combat pathogens while devising strategies to address the psychological, social, and structural conditions that predispose humans to infection. each other.
This requires non-biomedical interventions. We need to solve couples’ wages for lost work due to illness, ease the burden on families who travel long distances to the doctor’s office, facilitate childhood vaccinations because they are not available nearby, and prevent undiagnosed or untreated stress. A person’s health.
In short, suboptimal working conditions, lack of health care and mental health exacerbate infectious diseases.
The application of the biopsychosocial paradigm (along with the biomedical) in prevention and care is not an innovative concept. HippocratesConsidered to be the father of Western medicine, the recognized treatment and cure was guided by the attitude and environmental conditions.
In the year In 1977, George Engel developed the concept of the biopsychosocial paradigm. he said.“In order to understand the causes of diseases and to provide a basis for arriving at reasonable treatments and types of health care, the medical model must take into account the patient, the social situation in which he lives and the additional system designed by society to solve the disease with its distressing consequences.
This approach to health care also emphasizes the Affordable Care Act.
The “take two aspirin and call me in the morning” principle has shaped responses to epidemics for the past four decades. For those of us who have reached the peak of AIDS, such rigid and uncreative responses are insufficient. We know that activism and mental health must sit alongside medicine to address the social injustices that fuel HIV. Dr. Anthony Fauci understands that too. They joined With groups like ACT UP to ensure that human lives are considered in our fight against pathogens.
I have heard many say that the Covid-19 virus has overtaken us. How can it be? This virus has no brain, nervous system and no emotions. Because we as humans make wrong decisions, it spreads and hurts us. Many of our mainstream health institutions treat people as disease agents, out of emotion, not reason.
Those in the fields of public health and public health psychology understand and apply these concepts in our work. We recognize racism as a social determinant that creates significant health disparities for black and brown populations. We know that a vaccine will not eradicate Covid-19. And we know that AIDS continues to claim the lives of disadvantaged people of color. HIV continues to infect young gay men primarily in states such as FloridaWhere LGBTQ identities are Under the victory. No drug or medical procedure can deal with these social conditions.
If we want to control the epidemic, we must focus on people. In doing so, our approach must marry biomedicine with the psychological, behavioral, social, and structural. Public health should be equally represented in our decision-making bodies and in the research programs of the National Institutes of Health that we taxpayers support without corruption.
Perry N. Halkitis is dean of the Rutgers University School of Public Health and Hunterdon Professor of Public Health and Health Equity.
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