Public Health Answers: Trust in Science during the COVID-19 Pandemic

In this episode of Public Health Answers, we talk to Dr Michael Moore AM, Former Minister of Health and Community Care and an Independent member of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly from 1989 to 2001, to know how public health experts and politicians can work together to build up trust in science among community when facing a pandemic.

Click on the link below to watch the video on our YouTube. Let us know what you think and what questions you would like to ask public health experts. Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below the video.

Co-building a New Eco-Social World: Leaving No One Behind

“Our vision is that when we emerge from this pandemic, we co-build a world based on values that ensure our planet will be sustainable, and together we can provide good quality life-cycles, not only for each human being, but for each part of our eco-systems on which we all depend, leaving no one behind.”

The World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA) is very proud to be a partner to the Co-building a New Eco-Social World: Leaving No One Behind summit.

Initiated by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development and the International Federation of Social Workers, this summit will take place before the United Nations High-Level Political Forum in July 2022.

To become more familiar with this summit, please read below the press release from the summit partners.

Global Public Health Leaders Warn about Political Leadership that Harms

Around the world, the rapid spread of the Delta variant is posing a grave threat to pandemic control, highlighting the critical need for effective leadership informed by the best available evidence, global public health leaders have warned.

Members of the Public Health Leadership Coalition, launched earlier this year by the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA), met on June 28 to share updates on the COVID-19 pandemic from their respective countries.

The meeting heard that political imperatives are driving harmful policies in some countries, such as reopening and hosting big gatherings, and that the pandemic is being prolonged by global inequities in access to COVID vaccines as well as vaccine hesitancy in many countries.

The leadership coalition, led by Prof. Walter Ricciardi, WFPHA president, is working with ministers of health from different countries and is calling on them to join forces to reduce the huge disparities in equities, regarding the supply of vaccines and beyond. Leaders stand ready to support the development and implementation of the WHO proposed Global Pandemic Treaty.

Value-based Vaccination Webinar

Value-Based Healthcare (VBHC) offers a new value(s)-based immunization approach for sustainable and resilient healthcare systems. Exploring the full value of vaccinations could allow better evaluation of health-related and care-related productivity gains, community externalities and impact on social responsibility and cohesion.

On June 30 at 10:30 – 12:00 (CEST), this webinar brought together experts from different fields to discuss the evidence on the full value of vaccinations. Furthermore, this event discussed how to promote the research on the topic and effective policy at supranational, regional, and national levels, to elevate the discourse on value-based decision-making in vaccinations.

This webinar is available to view by clicking on the link below.

Recommendations to Drive Value-based Decision-making in Vaccination

Vaccination as a public health intervention intrinsically provides broad value that goes beyond individual benefits.

Here, several recommendations are issued in order to drive broader dialogue and meaningful policy actions to facilitate value-based decision-making in vaccination.

The Value(S) of Vaccination: Building the Scientific Evidence according to a Value-Based Healthcare Approach

Vaccination as a public health intervention intrinsically provides broad value that goes beyond individual benefits. Research has shown that vaccination could determine health-related and care-related productivity gains (due to avoided diseases and need for care), community externalities (e.g. protection of non-vaccinated individuals) and also an improvement in social responsibility and cohesion. These cumulative benefits enable healthier more prosperous societies contributing to the achievement of all the Sustainable Development Goals as health is also a fundamental resource to development.

Increased investment in public vaccination programmes, recognition of the broader (direct and indirect) value of vaccines and improved program implementation will save lives and protect people throughout life course. Vaccination should be recognised as a high-value public health investment, not just in terms of reducing the burden of disease, but also as an economically and socially beneficial healthcare intervention.

The following executive summary is aimed to collect and synthetize the scientific evidence on the personal, societal, allocative, and technical value of vaccinations with the aim to issue recommendations to drive broader dialogue and meaningful policy actions to facilitate value-based vaccination.