With the COVID-19 epidemic, and the daily updates from Governor Dewine and Dr. Amy Acton from the health department, we have become very familiar with public health.
Public health professionals are working to help thousands of people at a time. As Dr. Acton unfortunately realized, this involves making some unpopular decisions. She and Governor Dewine however, are to be applauded for dampening the the COVID-19 incidence curve and saving thousands of lives here in Ohio.
The public health profession can further have a great impact by addressing health population inequalities. The poor and minority populations that have been disproportionately effected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This makes clear the never ending role of public health to address the health of all populations of our society in a fair and equitable way.
COVID-19 has represented a new public health threat. Public health professionals receive new information constantly. They use it from an epidemiologic standpoint to direct societal health decisions that can save countless lives. Hopefully,we will look back at this time next year when things have returned to a semblance of normalcy, and be grateful for the knowledge that was learned and the lives that were saved.
