Leave Outbreak Management to Public Health Specialists!

* "Stay home" call from Bartın State Hospital / AA

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What about this outbreak, dad?

What do I need to do?

Will we be like Italy?

Well... OK, Arda... Let's call your sister Zeyno too and have a little talk...

In fact, the answer to your questions is about "Public Health."

I mean the Public Health that people ask, "Who is it treating, anyway, the public or what?" :)

"Public Health" is a scientific discipline. It is one of the medical specialties, let's put it like that.

Medical doctors don't only work at hospitals, Zeyno.

Because it is not enough to treat people when they are sick. Because one needs to prevent them from getting sick, too.

I don't have to say why, I guess, but I still have to ;)

Which one is more humane: Taking care of people before they get sick and trying to heal them after they fall ill or protecting millions of others from getting sick with a little precaution, say, by chlorinating the water?

Preventing them from falling ill is indeed a difficult task. Because people get sick for various reasons. Sometimes because they don't take good care of themselves, sometimes for genetic reasons and, most frequently, due to the conditions where they live.

You have a bad house, you get sick; you have a bad job, you get sick; you don't have a job, you get sick; the air that you breathe is bad, so is the water that you drink, you get sick; you are poor and you get sick for that only reason...

If that is so, then, how will we prevent people from getting sick?

Physicians, of course, don't have the power or authority to build good houses for people or find jobs for them. Nor can they save them from poverty by themselves... What can they do, then?

Two things, actually: First of all, they inform and warn the ones who have the authority and power to do all these, namely politicians. They say, "You, the politicians... If you don't do your job by thinking about the future and don't use scientific knowledge, people will get sick and die!"

Secondly, physicians provide preventive health services. For instance, imagine an epidemic. Like corona outbreak :) In such outbreaks, they both try to find the cause of the disease and discover what needs to be done to curb its spread. By doing this, they perhaps save the lives of millions of people. Isn't it more exciting than saving the life of a single patient? :)

I have missed out something while telling you all these, but you probably guess it: It is the "Public Health" that tries to prevent people from getting sick and losing their lives, it is the experts of this medical specialty who do it. The very experts that we don't see or hear about on televisions these days. We see microbiologists, cancer doctors, children's doctors, heart specialists, we see all types of charlatans, but in now way do we see "Public Health Specialists" either on televisions or in newspapers... In fact, it is exactly when they should say something and manage the process, isn't it?

Why is it like that?

No, there are enough of them ;) They are adequate in number, they also have specialty associations as well as departments at medical schools...

Because it is the politicians who will give authority to "Public Health" specialists and, unfortunately, when someone says health, hospitals come to their minds and when they hear the word medical service, they think of treatment!

That being the case, they are talking about increasing the number of hospitals, physicians and medicine.

Why?

Well...

How should I explain to you what privatization is and how they have plundered what belongs to us all. How they have destroyed our community health centers and the sense of service for society... How should I tell you of a world that you don't know...

You will, of course, understand the atrocity of the world that you were born into, you will, of course, learn the language of another world.

But, for now, let's put it like that, sweethearts:

We said that Public Health would first try to prevent; today, prevention is left to people themselves: Wash your hands, don't come too close to each other, don't go out, we are told... These are, of course, necessary. But 'necessary' is one thing and 'enough' is another...

Outbreaks cannot be managed like that, it is not how they are prevented from spreading. Measures strictly followed across the country are necessary. Just as a curfew is necessary now...

And, essentially, they can be prevented with "Public Health" specialists who will manage the struggle against the outbreaks.

Neither with other experts, nor with health workers at hospitals...

That is why you cannot solve this problem by increasing the number of hospitals, beds or physicians. The epidemic grows to such a point and the number of patients increases to such an extent that whatever you have or do will not suffice... It will be like this: Imagine that you are holding a bag in your hand and it keeps being pierced in different places every time; would it work if you tried to patch them one by one?

One day, the epidemic will, of course, come to an end and there will remain the ones who paid the price price for politicians' mistakes. I mean the heroic health workers offering service without wearing even a mask and, of course, thousands of preventable deaths...

But, don't be afraid... I didn't tell you all these to scare you.

I told you these to show that we are not desperate.

Look, it has been a full century since such an outbreak occurred. We are experiencing something known by almost no one living today. Other such epidemics will apparently break out in the near future, but we have more knowledge now, we have more effective measures.

Just as long as we are guided by science...

Today, my father turns 81, did you know that?

May you live longer than your grandfather!

May you live in a world where science is used for people's good.

May you live in a world like this.

And, then, you say hi to your dad ;)

(MC/DB/SD)