Public Health

Watch

• The Schism Between Medicine and Public Health | Patrick Remington | TEDxUWMadison ↗TEDx Talks
• How social determinants impact healthcare | Veronica Scott-Fulton | TEDxFondduLac ↗TEDx Talks
• Dr. Anthony Fauci, explained ↗Vox
• Mediterranean cuisine - The recipe for a long and healthy life? | DW Documentary ↗DW Documentary
• Big Pharma - How much power do drug companies have? | DW Documentary ↗DW Documentary
• The Healthcare Divide (full documentary) | FRONTLINE ↗FRONTLINE PBS | Official

Read

• The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World ↗A gripping narrative of London's 1854 cholera outbreak, this work illuminates the birth of modern epidemiology and the profound impact of scientific inquiry on public health.Steven Johnson
• Silent Spring ↗This seminal work exposed the devastating environmental and health impacts of pesticides, fundamentally shaping the environmental movement and broadening public health's scope to include ecological well-being.Rachel Carson
• Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World ↗A compelling portrait of Dr. Paul Farmer's relentless fight against infectious diseases in the world's poorest regions, this book underscores the moral imperative and practical complexities of global health equity.Tracy Kidder
• The Future of Public Health ↗This landmark report critically assessed the state of public health in the United States, providing a foundational framework that redefined its mission and essential services for decades to come.Institute of Medicine (IOM)
• The Epidemiologic Transition: A Theory of the Epidemiology of Population Change ↗This influential paper introduced the concept of the epidemiologic transition, explaining how patterns of disease and mortality shift from infectious to chronic conditions as societies develop economically and socially.Abdel R. Omran

Voices to follow

• Atul Gawande ↗He masterfully dissects the complexities of modern medicine and public health systems, advocating for systemic improvements with a blend of clinical insight and narrative flair.Surgeon, writer, and public health researcher; Professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
• Leana Wen ↗A clear and consistent communicator, she translates intricate public health science into actionable advice for the public and policymakers, often appearing in major media.Emergency physician, public health professor, and medical analyst
• Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus ↗As the leader of the world's foremost public health body, he navigates global health crises and advocates for equitable health access and preparedness on an international stage.Director-General of the World Health Organization
• Anthony Fauci ↗A long-standing authority on infectious diseases, his decades of experience and candid communication have shaped America's response to epidemics from AIDS to COVID-19.Immunologist and former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

Glossary

• Community HealthCommunity health focuses on the overall health and well-being of a specific group of people living in the same area, like a town or neighborhood. It looks at how factors like local resources, environment, and social connections affect the health of everyone in that group. For example, a local park being built to encourage outdoor activity for residents is a community health initiative.
• Disease PreventionDisease prevention means taking steps to stop people from getting sick in the first place, rather than just treating them after they're ill. It's about staying healthy and avoiding diseases. For example, brushing your teeth daily prevents cavities, and wearing a helmet while cycling prevents head injuries.
• EpidemicAn epidemic happens when a disease spreads quickly and affects a much larger number of people than usual in a specific area or community. If it spreads across many countries or even worldwide, it's called a pandemic. For example, if many students in your school suddenly get the flu at the same time, that's a small epidemic within the school.
• Health EducationHealth education is about teaching people how to make good choices for their health and well-being. It provides information and skills to help individuals and communities live healthier lives. For example, school lessons about balanced diets, the dangers of smoking, or safe sex are forms of health education.
• HygieneHygiene refers to practices that help you stay clean and healthy, especially to prevent the spread of germs and diseases. It's about personal cleanliness. For example, washing your hands before eating, showering regularly, and covering your mouth when you cough are all important hygiene practices.
• Infectious DiseaseAn infectious disease is an illness caused by germs like bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites that can spread from one person to another, or from animals to people. These diseases are "catching." For example, the common cold, flu, and chickenpox are all infectious diseases because you can catch them from someone else.
• Non-communicable DiseaseA non-communicable disease (NCD) is a long-lasting illness that cannot be spread from person to person. These diseases often develop over time due to a combination of genetics, lifestyle, and environment. For example, diabetes, heart disease, and asthma are non-communicable diseases; you can't catch them like a cold.
• Public HealthPublic health is all about keeping entire communities healthy and preventing sickness from spreading. It involves organized efforts to protect and improve the well-being of many people, not just one person. For example, when the government runs campaigns to encourage everyone to wash their hands or get vaccinated, that's public health in action.
• SanitationSanitation involves systems and practices that safely manage human waste, wastewater (used water from homes and industries), and garbage to protect public health and the environment. It's about keeping our surroundings clean. For example, having proper sewage systems that carry away dirty water from homes and public toilets are part of good sanitation.
• VaccinationVaccination is when you get a shot or drops that contain a tiny, harmless part of a germ, which teaches your body's immune system (its defense team) how to fight off that specific disease if you encounter it later. It makes you immune, meaning protected. For example, getting a polio vaccine protects you from getting polio, a serious disease.

Threads 10

Where this connects to other fields, and why it's worth knowing.

• Architecture & Urban Design Arts & Design

  In one 1984 study, Roger Ulrich found that surgery patients with a window view of nature had fewer complications, used less pain medicine and went home sooner than those facing a brick wall. Same operation, different view. His work laid the foundation for a field now called evidence-based design, which asks how buildings can help people heal.

  Sources: Evidence-based design (Wikipedia) ↗

• Civil & Structural Engineering Technology

  Sewers and clean water did a big share of the work in helping people live longer. Economists David Cutler and Grant Miller found clean water was responsible for nearly half the drop in deaths in major US cities in the early 1900s. Food, vaccines and medicine mattered too, and experts still argue over the mix, but civil engineers rank among the great life-savers.

  Sources: The Role of Public Health Improvements in Health Advances: The 20th Century United States (NBER) ↗ · Thomas McKeown (physician) (Wikipedia) ↗

• Religion in History History

  Ancient rules said wash before eating, avoid certain meats, and keep sick people separated from the camp, all framed as holy commandments. The medieval scholar Maimonides saw health benefits in food laws like these, but Bible scholar Lester Grabbe calls a hygiene basis 'almost universally rejected', and anthropologist Mary Douglas argued they were not health rules.

  Sources: Quarantine (Wikipedia) ↗ · Kashrut (Wikipedia) ↗ · Purity and Danger (Wikipedia) ↗

• Cybersecurity Technology

  Updating your software is basically getting a vaccine. One computer that skips its security patch, like one person who skips their shot, can spread an infection through everyone connected to it. So being safe online isn't only your own business; it's a herd thing, where your neighbor's carelessness can put you at risk too.

• Public Relations & Strategic Communication Media

  Two vaccine campaigns can use the identical shot but get wildly different results, based purely on how the message is worded and framed. That means how you say something changes how many people actually get protected, as much as the medicine itself. Communication isn't the wrapping, it's part of the cure.

• Social Media & Society Sociology

  Your friend's friend's friend, someone you've never met, may nudge your weight, your smoking, even your happiness. Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler argue such effects ripple up to three degrees of social distance, though critics question whether their methods rule out other causes. Behavior may spread through a network much like a germ through a crowd.

  Sources: Three degrees of influence (Wikipedia) ↗

• Student Mental Health Education

  Researchers have found that suicides sometimes spread through a school or a community, a pattern called a suicide cluster, and young people are among the most susceptible to this 'contagion'. So prevention can look like public health too: in Vienna, copycat suicides fell after suicide-prevention experts drew up media guidelines and the media agreed to stop reporting cases.

  Sources: Copycat suicide (Wikipedia) ↗

• The Holocaust and Genocide History

  The Nazi horror was dressed up as medicine before it became mass murder. Under 'racial hygiene', disabled and mentally ill people were cast as enemies to be cleansed, and from 1940 doctors selected patients for the gas chambers of the T4 'euthanasia' programme. Planners of the 'Final Solution' later borrowed those gas chambers to murder Jews.

  Sources: Aktion T4 (Wikipedia) ↗ · Euthanasia Program and Aktion T4 (Holocaust Encyclopedia, USHMM) ↗

• Data Privacy Law Law

  To stop an outbreak, health officials track who you met and where you went. But that's the exact same tracking a spying government would use to control people. So a pandemic forces a brutal trade: the tools that save lives are the tools that could build a surveillance state, and privacy law has to choose.

• Disaster Risk Reduction Global Challenges

  Disasters can interrupt care, water and other health protections. Public health helps identify who depends on these services; risk reduction connects continuity with prevention and preparedness.

  Sources: Disruptive Voices Episode 5: Climate, Disasters and Health ↗ · What is the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction? ↗