Kellie Oosterman

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, people living across the globe have become increasingly interested in the field of public health. The pandemic represents a watershed moment for public health professionals, demonstrating just how disruptive global health issues can be at the local level. To understand the role of public health, it’s important to consider the core goals of the profession. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes, public health is “concerned with protecting the health of entire populations” by preventing disease, promoting healthier lifestyles and educating the public about chronic illnesses, comorbidities and environmental risks. But considering the wide availability of health-related information on the internet, why is public health important to the well-being of both individuals and communities?

The importance of public health

The public health field is broad and diverse, bringing together experts with very different backgrounds and perspectives. Through close collaboration, healthcare researchers, public health professionals, government officials, community stakeholders, and others seek to mitigate the impact of health problems, from heart disease and diabetes to infectious diseases and environmental hazards. This is often achieved through in-depth research, public outreach and the creation of educational materials that align with the needs of different populations. In this way, public health is essential to protecting underserved or marginalized communities that may not have access to high-quality public health programs.

One of the most important roles of the public health field is to create an evidence-based consensus around specific health problems and their proposed solutions. For example, the number of motor-vehicle deaths in the U.S. increased 838% between 1913 and 2018, according to data collected by the National Safety Council. While this long, steady rise in crash-related fatalities is largely due to the heightened use of personal vehicles, other factors like seat belt usage also play a key role. After conducting extensive research, public health professionals lobbied U.S. lawmakers to implement mandatory seatbelt laws, which have helped save hundreds of thousands of lives. Of course, public health professionals also investigate the impact of health issues like infectious diseases, hereditary conditions, pollution and even mental illness.

This brings us back to our initial question: Why is public health important? In short, the field of public health works to improve the life expectancy and overall wellness of diverse populations. This in turn, can lead to a better quality of life for countless people domestically and abroad, including in countries that may not have the infrastructure available to conduct public health research on their own. Vaccines are perhaps the most straightforward example: Thanks to the efforts of healthcare researchers and public health professionals, no cases of polio have originated from the U.S. since 1979, according to the CDC. The polio vaccine has also been shared with other nations, helping reduce the global infection rate and all but eliminate the disease from modern life.

To understand why public health is important in real-world scenarios, it’s useful to breakdown how different focus areas contribute to global health initiatives and the well-being of local communities:

Public health research

Public health researchers shed light on the root causes and risk factors of medical conditions, environmental hazards and genetic disorders. This often involves studying the biological, behavioral, social and environmental influences behind major health problems. In many cases, public health professionals conduct detailed population surveys and analyze historical trends to form conclusions about specific health conditions. Using scientific evidence, they then develop and propose new intervention strategies, health policies and treatment practices, in addition to identifying ways to prevent the problem from reoccurring. This research is the backbone of public health work, as it provides educators, lobbyists and hands-on consultants with the information they need to make a meaningful, positive and long-term impact.

Public health communication

Public outreach and communication help to transform scientific evidence into digestible, easy-to-understand resources tailored to the needs and preferences of specific populations. According to the World Health Organization, public health communication is relevant to nearly every aspect of community wellness, from disease prevention to health promotion. Public health professionals leverage a variety of media strategies to keep the general public informed about trending health issues, using channels such as radio, television, social media and print publications. When creating education resources, public health communicators must carefully consider their medium of choice, their target audience and the context around the health problem they’re trying to alleviate.

Public health programs

The public health system encompasses a wide spectrum of institutions, including health care providers, public safety agencies, environmental organizations and even charities. Together, these organizations work to improve the health of individuals and communities by maintaining public-facing programs and services – i.e., mental health support, family counselling, nutrition and fitness workshops and occupational therapy. These community resources are invaluable to millions of people around the country, helping them take charge of their own well-being and practice healthier behaviors. Since the field of public health is largely focused on prevention, community-based programs play a leading role in promoting health-conscious lifestyles and reducing the risks of chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes.

Public health policy

As the CDC explains, the health of any nation or local community is heavily influenced by public health policies. Working closely with healthcare researchers, government officials and community stakeholders, public health professionals develop and advocate for action plans, regulations and laws that can help them achieve specific health goals. For example, Indiana recently passed a new law, House Bill 1070, concerning “hands-free driving:” As of July 1, 2020, the state has officially prohibited the use of smartphones and other technologies while operating a motor vehicle. Other notable health policies include bans on smoking in public spaces, seat belt laws and regulations that govern Nutrition Facts labels on consumer products.

The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.

From the corner of the divan of Persian saddle-bags on which he was lying, smoking, as was his custom, innumerable cigarettes, Lord Henry Wotton could just catch the gleam of the honey-sweet and honey-coloured blossoms of a laburnum, whose tremulous branches seemed hardly able to bear the burden of a beauty so flamelike as theirs; and now and then the fantastic shadows of birds in flight flitted across the long tussore-silk curtains that were stretched in front of the huge window, producing a kind of momentary Japanese effect, and making him think of those pallid, jade-faced painters of Tokyo who, through the medium of an art that is necessarily immobile, seek to convey the sense of swiftness and motion. The sullen murmur of the bees shouldering their way through the long unmown grass, or circling with monotonous insistence round the dusty gilt horns of the straggling woodbine, seemed to make the stillness more oppressive. The dim roar of London was like the bourdon note of a distant organ.

In the centre of the room, clamped to an upright easel, stood the full-length portrait of a young man of extraordinary personal beauty, and in front of it, some little distance away, was sitting the artist himself, Basil Hallward, whose sudden disappearance some years ago caused, at the time, such public excitement and gave rise to so many strange conjectures.

As the painter looked at the gracious and comely form he had so skilfully mirrored in his art, a smile of pleasure passed across his face, and seemed about to linger there. But he suddenly started up, and closing his eyes, placed his fingers upon the lids, as though he sought to imprison within his brain some curious dream from which he feared he might awake.

“It is your best work, Basil, the best thing you have ever done,” said Lord Henry languidly. “You must certainly send it next year to the Grosvenor. The Academy is too large and too vulgar. Whenever I have gone there, there have been either so many people that I have not been able to see the pictures, which was dreadful, or so many pictures that I have not been able to see the people, which was worse. The Grosvenor is really the only place.”

“I don’t think I shall send it anywhere,” he answered, tossing his head back in that odd way that used to make his friends laugh at him at Oxford. “No, I won’t send it anywhere.”

Lord Henry elevated his eyebrows and looked at him in amazement through the thin blue wreaths of smoke that curled up in such fanciful whorls from his heavy, opium-tainted cigarette. “Not send it anywhere? My dear fellow, why? Have you any reason? What odd chaps you painters are! You do anything in the world to gain a reputation. As soon as you have one, you seem to want to throw it away. It is silly of you, for there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. A portrait like this would set you far above all the young men in England, and make the old men quite jealous, if old men are ever capable of any emotion.”

“I know you will laugh at me,” he replied, “but I really can’t exhibit it. I have put too much of myself into it.”

Lord Henry stretched himself out on the divan and laughed.

“Yes, I knew you would; but it is quite true, all the same.”

“Too much of yourself in it! Upon my word, Basil, I didn’t know you were so vain; and I really can’t see any resemblance between you, with your rugged strong face and your coal-black hair, and this young Adonis, who looks as if he was made out of ivory and rose-leaves. Why, my dear Basil, he is a Narcissus, and you—well, of course you have an intellectual expression and all that. But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face. The moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid. Look at the successful men in any of the learned professions. How perfectly hideous they are! Except, of course, in the Church. But then in the Church they don’t think. A bishop keeps on saying at the age of eighty what he was told to say when he was a boy of eighteen, and as a natural consequence he always looks absolutely delightful. Your mysterious young friend, whose name you have never told me, but whose picture really fascinates me, never thinks. I feel quite sure of that. He is some brainless beautiful creature who should be always here in winter when we have no flowers to look at, and always here in summer when we want something to chill our intelligence. Don’t flatter yourself, Basil: you are not in the least like him.”

“You don’t understand me, Harry,” answered the artist. “Of course I am not like him. I know that perfectly well. Indeed, I should be sorry to look like him. You shrug your shoulders? I am telling you the truth. There is a fatality about all physical and intellectual distinction, the sort of fatality that seems to dog through history the faltering steps of kings. It is better not to be different from one’s fellows. The ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat. They live as we all should live—undisturbed, indifferent, and without disquiet. They neither bring ruin upon others, nor ever receive it from alien hands. Your rank and wealth, Harry; my brains, such as they are—my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray’s good looks—we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly.”

“Dorian Gray? Is that his name?” asked Lord Henry, walking across the studio towards Basil Hallward.

“Yes, that is his name. I didn’t intend to tell it to you.”

“Oh, I can’t explain. When I like people immensely, I never tell their names to any one. It is like surrendering a part of them. I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvellous to us. The commonest thing is delightful if one only hides it. When I leave town now I never tell my people where I am going. If I did, I would lose all my pleasure. It is a silly habit, I dare say, but somehow it seems to bring a great deal of romance into one’s life. I suppose you think me awfully foolish about it?”

“Not at all,” answered Lord Henry, “not at all, my dear Basil. You seem to forget that I am married, and the one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties. I never know where my wife is, and my wife never knows what I am doing. When we meet—we do meet occasionally, when we dine out together, or go down to the Duke’s—we tell each other the most absurd stories with the most serious faces. My wife is very good at it—much better, in fact, than I am. She never gets confused over her dates, and I always do. But when she does find me out, she makes no row at all. I sometimes wish she would; but she merely laughs at me.”

“I hate the way you talk about your married life, Harry,” said Basil Hallward, strolling towards the door that led into the garden. “I believe that you are really a very good husband, but that you are thoroughly ashamed of your own virtues. You are an extraordinary fellow. You never say a moral thing, and you never do a wrong thing. Your cynicism is simply a pose.”

“Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know,” cried Lord Henry, laughing; and the two young men went out into the garden together and ensconced themselves on a long bamboo seat that stood in the shade of a tall laurel bush. The sunlight slipped over the polished leaves. In the grass, white daisies were tremulous.

After a pause, Lord Henry pulled out his watch. “I am afraid I must be going, Basil,” he murmured, “and before I go, I insist on your answering a question I put to you some time ago.”

“What is that?” said the painter, keeping his eyes fixed on the ground.

“You know quite well.”

“I do not, Harry.”