The Coronavirus Effect: Epidemiology, virology see spike in number of students choosing them as careers
The coronavirus pandemic has been wreaking massive damage to people all over the world. However, on the bright side, it has generated a lot of awareness and introduced young people to the field of public health.
Experts see this as a positive sign as it could attract more students to study public health. "The current coronavirus pandemic will generate interest in public health as a career path. I think young people will be attracted to the field," Dr. Thomas Yuill, Professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an expert on diseases of wildlife and emerging virus diseases, told MEA WorldWide (MEAWW).
Agreeing with Dr Yuill is Dr Jonathan A Eisen from the University of California at Davis. "Yes, unquestionably," he said, answering a question on whether the pandemic will attract the young to public health.
What do public health experts do?
Experts who specialize in the field are at the forefront of disease outbreaks. When an outbreak strikes, for example, experts try to figure out its source.
"Outbreak investigations remain one of the most visible things we do in public health, however, there is so much more," Dr Arjun Srinivasan from the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases wrote in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
Further, public health experts help predict death rates and other outcomes of a pandemic. They also analyze to make sense of the threat posed by the invisible enemy, including an understanding of disease burden and risk factors.
"More importantly, we use our clinical backgrounds to inform potential interventions and control strategies in settings ranging from tertiary care hospitals to farms and rural villages in the developing world," he added.
If an outbreak does not keep them busy, they focus on researching emerging threats. In other words, they try to predict which infectious organism is more likely to strike in the future.
In addition to studying outbreaks, public health specialists are responsible for ensuring the safety of food and water while also helping people avoid leading causes of death such as heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes.
Previous pandemics have strengthened public health
The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, which killed 50 million people after infecting about 500 million people worldwide, brought the spotlight on public health. In the 1920s, countries adopted the concept of socialized medicine — healthcare for all.
In the years that followed, public health also provided equal importance to study that disease, including identifying the conditions that give rise to illness and suggesting ways to prevent it. This laid the foundation stone for epidemiology — a branch that deals with disease patterns, causes, and control strategies.
In Canada, the government established pandemic protocols to strengthen public health. The plan included issuing warnings, circulating evidence-based information, monitoring the disease while compiling statistics, and tracking the pandemic’s pattern of movement across the country.
The current state of public health
According to Dr Madhukar Pai from McGill University, public health is not as recognized or glamorous as clinical medicine, for instance. "For those of us working in public health, this is great because the whole world is seeing public health in action, real-time. Public health has always been an ‘invisible’ discipline," he told MEAWW.
Will the coronavirus bring about a change? Mostly, yes. But there is an obstacle: funding. Public health has been underfunded for many years, according to Dr Yuill.
One study throws light on the falling funding in the US. The total US — public and private — share of global research funding declining from 57% to 44%. What is more, President Donald Trump is expected to cut funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by 7%.
Another expert called out Trump for proposing to cut the annual budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by just over 10%.
According to a Boston Globe op-ed by Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health Dean Michelle Williams, Trump's proposal is short-sighted and would further strain the nation’s already struggling health system.
"This pandemic illustrates the need for a strong public health sector," Dr. Yuill explained, adding that funding is crucial to attracting talent.
Nevertheless, there is hope. Drs Yuill and Eisen are receiving emails from the young. Eisen said: "I have done some zoom chats with various groups in response to emails."