Part 1 of 2. The importance of reimagining public health in an uneasy time
This piece was co-authored by Dr Nason Maani
Public health is at an uneasy juncture. Its central institutions face diminished public trust. The CDC has faced unprecedented cuts and challenges to its remit and organization. Funding for public health research has been under strain. Presidential declarations on diseases and vaccines have, at times, run directly counter to expert consensus. While understandably dominating the headlines, this is by no means a US-only trend. In more subtle ways, public health is being undermined in the UK too. Public Health England was disbanded, presented as a technical re-organization to strengthen pandemic preparedness, but also serving as a way of deflect criticism over COVID-19. This change replaced an arms-length organization that led campaigns and produced authoritative reviews with one embedded within health and social care, without budgetary independence or the ability to act autonomously. Two years later, a long-planned white paper on health disparities was scrapped. At the global level, health funding has been dramatically curtailed since January 2025. The immediate consequences of all this are increasingly visible: declining confidence in science and government institutions, resignations, confusion, policy vacuums, and a heightened vulnerability to mis- and disinformation
Read more here