Public Health is Dead

"Should you be worried?" is the wrong question for the media to be asking about public health issues. We need good information to make good decisions. But global public health leaders seem more concerned about avoiding panic than avoiding pandemics. When a virus started spreading human-to-human on a cruise ship in May, public health communication faltered as panic-management took the helm. All abo...

This is a piece from the "pandemic-is-over-bro-just-trust-us" hall of fame. Daniella & MJ (host of " Everything is Public Health ") deconstruct TIME magazine's " The COVID-19 Pandemic Will Be Over When Americans Think It Is " from January 2023. This one has it all, folks. There's mansplaining, risk assessments without assessing risks, ignoring Long COVID, a fundamental misconstruction of what publ...

Public health has been used as a tool of empire for centuries. Keeping settlers healthy enough to maintain colonial control over land, resources, and capital is a part of public health’s history. It’s also part of its present. *Content Note: This episode contains mentions of residential schools and colonial violence. (Transcript HERE ). In this episode, hear about Renee Bach, an ill-famed recent c...

Book report! What Daniella & MJ liked and didn't like about John Green's newest book, " Everything is Tuberculosis ".  Written in the age of COVID, does he address the thing TB is known for: airborne disease transmission? Can he separate himself from tired old tropes of white saviourism in Africa? Do we think the book does enough to challenge the systems producing inequity in the first place?  Hit...

If you go into hospital, you shouldn’t have to worry about getting more sick. Many people get COVID, flu, and other airborne infections from being in hospital, even though it’s preventable. This is a policy failure. And it's fixable. Dr. Dick Zoutman , Board Chair at the Canadian COVID Society, and professor emeritus at Queen’s University, shows us 5 ways to stop COVID from running rampant at hosp...

Most people get a lot of what they know about public health from what’s in the news. But what’s in the news—and the way it’s talked about—is not always clear or accurate.   This episode tracks how the media has contributed to the alarming decline of public health and played a role in blocking meaningful understanding and action on COVID. What is reported and how it's framed can have a huge impact...

Canada could lose its measles elimination status, which says a lot about the state of public health overall. Media coverage leaves much to be desired when it comes to informing the public about measles vaccines, airborne transmission, and social determinants of health, especially with a new school year beginning. Daniella & MJ chew over the hits, swings, and misses in a recent measles episode of C...

This is Public Health Media Club—a chatty and critical exchange about public health in the media! Daniella (of "Public Health is Dead") & MJ (of "Everything is Public Health") do a crossover episode about COVID, people still masking, and "The Science"! First up, from the Atlantic: The Evermaskers (archived link) .  *This episode pairs nicely with the previous special episode on Public Health is De...

Ever heard anyone say they can't care about COVID anymore because it's bad for their mental health? Or their therapist said people still masking have "COVID anxiety"? Well, here are three mental health professionals who have a thing or two to say about that! Meet Pierre , Briana , and Ji-Youn , who share their perspectives on what the Western therapy world is often missing when it comes to COVID a...

In March 2003, one SARS patient showed up in a Vancouver emergency room and another went to a Toronto emergency room. But two very different sequences of events unfolded. Dr. Lyne Filiatrault was working in the Vancouver ER that day. Her team leapt into action and—with a little luck and a lot of preparation—prevented SARS from spreading at the hospital. A government agency immediately put in prote...

How a mixup about airborne transmission led to one of the biggest public health errors in history. 5 years since the COVID pandemic began, public health has yet to clearly address it. A lot of disease spread happens through the air we share. And most people don’t know. Over the last century, our growing understanding of pathogens and the ways they spread allowed public health to mitigate, eliminat...

A field trip to the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver to learn more about their ventilation system, built after the 1918 flu pandemic.  Ladies and Gentlethems, the show you’ve all been waiting for, the show that will keep you glued to your seat! A show all about preventing diseases and pathogens and, sometimes, things that go bump in the night.  Join Daniella on a journey through the belly of an old va...

Could you have Long COVID and not know it? Possibly, according to a leading Long COVID physician-epidemiologist who explains what the condition is and how it has impacted millions of people around the world. We also meet someone living with Long COVID who shares what the experience has been like for them.  More than 400 million people (and counting) are affected by Long COVID around the world. Dr....

What is public health? A quick intro to the show, your host, and what to expect. Public health may be dead but we're not dead yet! *** If you’ve always wanted more clarity about what public health is or how it’s meant to protect you, this episode is a short one to share a working definition, set the stage for the show and let you know a bit more about your host, Daniella, your guide on this journe...

If you have a feeling something isn’t quite right in the world of disease control... If your kids are sick of being sick (and their teachers are too)... If your favourite artists keep cancelling their shows because of another "mystery illness"... Or if you’ve been suffering for years with Long COVID and can’t believe we’re still not warning people about COVID’s aftershocks... This show is for you!...