The Clarion Call of the Coronavirus

I believe that the community - in the fullest sense: a place and all its creatures - is the smallest unit of health and that to speak of the health of an isolated individual is a contradiction in terms." -Wendell Berry

The coronavirus is a clarion call to make public health central to the social contract and a key mandate of government at every level, local, state and federal. The experiment of having the market solve all problems has failed. The health care system is broken. The environment has been trashed. Neo-liberal billionaires have ransacked government in the name of some illusory “freedom”. We have forgotten that we are responsible to and for each other.

What would it mean if public health was restored to its rightful place as a key responsibility of government? What would our policies look like if we focused on preventing disease and fostering the conditions for health?

As a first order of business, we would recognize the central role the environment plays in public health. Disturbed bat habitat and disruption of human food systems in China appear to be the source of the Coronavirus. However, conditions in places like Iowa (the most ecologically damaged state in the Union) are ripe for zoonotic diseases like Covid-19. Those conditions include hogs and chickens packed into unhealthy close quarters in factory farms. Those animals pollute the water and air with liquid manure and aerosolized fecal dust carrying antibiotic resistant bacteria as well as viruses. The famous Spanish flu of 1918 probably began on a Kansas hog farm .

Years ago, a diverse group of people with broad expertise in public health, medicine and ecology gathered to develop a consensus around the basic idea that our health was rooted in the natural world and issue a call to action. We called this “ecological medicine” and said:

“Ecological Medicine sounds an urgent call to action. Understanding the ominous changes in the biosphere compels us to act, individually and collectively. Whether it is in the way we build clinics and hospitals; make, grow, and use medicines; choose areas for scientific study; communicate across disciplines; conduct public health services globally and in particular communities; or choose the means of maintaining our own health, we must do so with a commitment to enhancing life on this planet.”

As goes the Earth, so goes humanity. We have just discovered the hard way that if we shrink wildlands or crowd animals in feed lots, we are going to get outbreaks of devastating diseases. If we treat public health as an after-thought and make health care a privilege for the wealthy and employed, we will destroy the basic infrastructure on which our society depends.

SEHN is co-convening a project with True North called the Big Rethink. We aim to trace the history of how we got to this point where public health is sacrificed on the altar of the economy, and to design a way forward that restores a robust democracy, effective government and a healthy world. Covid-19 is our wake-up call. There is no snooze button.

Carolyn Raffensperger
Executive Director