Abstract Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic highlighted the challenges of effective emergency risk communication (ERC) to protect public health, including the difficulty in tackling the spread of inaccurate information. This study aimed to understand those challenges and potential solutions by interviewing leading government spokespersons and their advisors from around the world with experience during large scale emergencies. Interviews were conducted with 27 individuals representing governments from 19 countries across five continents. Thematic analysis, using both a deductive and inductive approach, organized and identified salient themes and patterns that emerged from the interview data. Results The thematic analysis of the interviews’ data led to the identification of 9 principles of communication: 1) Timeliness, 2) Transparency, 3) Coordination, 4) Accuracy and Consistency, 5) Accountability and Integrity, 6) Independence from politics, 7) Responsiveness, 8) Equity, 9) Trust and Empathy. We also developed 36 recommendations actionable by government agencies to enhance the practice of the 9 principles. Examples include the need for: proactive communication strategies, permanent communication task forces integrated into preparedness and response efforts, robust processes to enhance open discussion of controversial topics within government agencies, clarification of how various branches of government coordinate to oversee specific aspects of the overall communication, and development of relationships across public and private entities ahead of a crisis. Conclusions Our findings suggest key practical recommendations for leaders of government agencies to enhance ERC capabilities going forward. Before a crisis, they must constantly review internal processes and integrate ERC functions into overall communication planning efforts. During a crisis, they must coordinate roles and responsibilities across branches of governments, strive to communicate to a range of populations to uphold equity, maintain transparency by avoiding information voids on controversial issues and build trust by building relationships with a variety of community leaders. After a crisis, government agencies should continue the practice of social listening to hear more about the public’s informational needs, strengthen civic participation processes, and understand how an always evolving information environment can best be leveraged during future crises.
An editorial is presented on the integration of public health and medical care in the U.S. It discusses a number of programs to bring public health and community medical care together, the importance of preventive health services, and role of primary care as a starting point for such integration.
Understanding the size and composition of the state and local governmental public health workforce in the United States is critical for promoting and protecting the health of the public. Using pandemic-era data from the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey fielded in 2017 and 2021, this study compared intent to leave or retire in 2017 with actual separations through 2021 among state and local public health agency staff. We also examined how employee age, region, and intent to leave correlated with separations and considered the effect on the workforce if trends were to continue. In our analytic sample, nearly half of all employees in state and local public health agencies left between 2017 and 2021, a proportion that rose to three-quarters for those ages thirty-five and younger or with shorter tenures. If separation trends continue, by 2025 this would represent more than 100,000 staff leaving their organizations, or as much as half of the governmental public health workforce in total. Given the likelihood of increasing outbreaks and future global pandemics, strategies to improve recruitment and retention must be prioritized.
Approximately one million Americans are diagnosed with skin cancer each year. Since melanoma and skin cancer are amenable to prevention, education, and early detection, efforts to reduce the incidence of and death from melanoma have developed in many countries. Programs promoting behavioral changes and the incorporation of skin cancer control into national health care agendas have begun in a number of countries. Additional programs for the at-risk and general populations require further development and evaluation.
Targeting and exposure of youth to magazine advertising of tobacco products is associated with increased smoking initiation. National magazine advertising and youth exposure declined in the period following the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA). However, tobacco companies continued targeting youth with brands that were popular among them through magazine advertising and placement of ads in magazines with high youth readership. Existing restrictions, followed by enforcement through litigation, have achieved a marked reduction in overall magazine advertising but may be less adequate compared with pending federal legislation to fully protect youth from the marketing of tobacco products designed to appeal to them.
This chapter reviews the current status of melanoma screening with attention to unresolved scientific questions. In this chapter, melanoma screening is discussed in such a broad sense. B Case-control studies can offer initial data to evaluate screening programs. Only preliminary data document the educational effects of screening programs. Melanoma control activities include public education campaigns throughout the Netherlands, and screening programs in two areas. In 1989, skin cancer screening programs used a mobile trailer along the beach in the western region of the Netherlands. The most efficient cancer screening programs target individuals at high risk for the disease or death from the disease. The American Cancer Society recommends that all adults receive at least a baseline total body skin cancer screening examination from a physician, with subsequent skin examinations at the physician's discretion as determined by risk status. .
Sustainability, Business, and HealthThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has demonstrated that response demands involvement from every sector of society.As a major example, some businesses have stepped up in ways previously unimaginable.Garment companies have repurposed production to face masks and other protective equipment.Alcohol distilleries and perfumeries have shifted production to hand sanitizers.Automobile companies, both voluntarily and as compelled by the Defense Production Act, have worked with the ventilator industry to increase production.More broadly, an early analysis estimates that 64% of the US's 100 largest publicly traded companies have made customer accommodations to COVID-19, including deferred bill payments; 43% have expanded paid sick leave, including, in some cases, for part-time and hourly employees. 1Such positive changes, however, are in contrast to a host of other public concerns, including that future vaccines and therapeutics may not be affordable for much of the world.In the next phase of the crisis, the safe reopening of society will require intense interactions between the health and business sectors to address these and other issues.These developments reflect an even broader connection between private enterprise and public health that has evolved over recent decades.The United Nations (UN) World Commission on Environment and Development's 1987 vision of "sustainable global development" defined it as meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. 2Contending that economic development at the cost of social equity and the environment undermines longlasting prosperity, this vision served as the foundation for the 2000 UN Millennium Development Goals and the 2015 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development; the latter proposed 17 interrelated sustainable development goals (SDGs) and 169 targets as a shared global blueprint for 2030.The SDGs are achievable only through commitments of all sectors, including private enterprise, and address a vast range of public health issues: communicable (including some epidemic) diseases, noncommunicable diseases, and broader areas critical to human well-being including climate, poverty, working conditions, and cities and communities.
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