Speaking Out for Public Health

On Thursday, we had guest speaker who’s doing a lot of work with the Department of Homeland Security. He mentioned that most of the disaster and bio-terrorism planning is being done without any public health professionals at the table. That’s a real scary thought to me. Not so much because we are the people who should be there because we are the ones to respond in an emergency, but more so because the designated leaders don’t think to include us.

How can we reverse this blatant disregard for our profession? I attended the last APHA meeting and there were thousands of public health professionals there. Surely someone must recognize that we are being overlooked when it comes to important policy issues. I hope that my up and coming colleagues will work hard to make sure that our voices are heard more often when it comes to influencing policy and changing the awareness level of our profession.