Public health measures problems

From the Canadian Encyclopedia: “In the 19th and early 20th centuries, public health was concerned with quarantine measures and emphasized improved sanitation and vaccination campaigns that were initiated in an attempt to control major infectious diseases.”

The creation of special agencies concerned with public health followed and officers of these agencies were given special powers to issue public health orders in regards to regulating public behaviour.

Seems to make sense, but a problem arose during the Covid pandemic which has its roots in the professional backgrounds of most of the people working in public health agencies: The higher echelons are doctors and nurses that have emigrated from the sick care system and so have brought their attitudes and beliefs with them into their new jobs.

Their preoccupation as public health operatives therefore became the preservation of the sick care system as we understand it, i.e. overcrowded hospitals. The overall health of the public became a secondary concern, resulting in public loss of confidence in the ability of these people to deal with a health crisis.

As a society we have paid dearly for this failure of the public health system, with the integrity of the whole medical profession being questioned.

It will take many years, if ever, for that confidence to be restored.