PUBHLTH 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Public Health, Infection, Paternalism
Document Summary
Public health should be a way of doing justice, a way of asserting the value and priority of all human life. Dream of public health: preventable death and disability should be minimized. Political conservatives: limit public health to a technical enterprise, focused on controlling communicable disease, or safety net that provides medical care to the indigent. This restrictive view of ph encouraged by physicians concerned about government encroachment on their economic & professional independence. Limitations on federal funding to local public health departments 1930-1940. The common good (the value and priority of human life) Questions about the scope of public health. Importance of economic factors for health - politically controversial. Business often resist public health measures bc they affect profits. Those who must pay may not be the ones who benefit. Costs may be short-term, while benefits may be long-term. In times of economic difficulty, people often unwilling to pay short-term cost in order to obtain a long-term benefit.
