echnology connects us instantaneously with democratized and decentralized information in legacy, digital, and social media. We have an almost limitless capacity to reach people. This should be a harbinger of progress that will empower us all. Yet, in 2024, the single event that will shape our future with potential cataclysmic effect is not this technology but its byproduct—the re–election of Donald Trump as U.S. President.
Joseph Nye warns that the 2024 election is a turning point in America, reflecting a realignment in American politics and a weakening of the norms, institutional constraints, and support for the international alliances and multilateral institutions that were supported by America after World War II.
As we claw our way back to some normalcy in the wake of the Covid pandemic, we need to remember that when health is at risk, everything is at risk. While trust in our institutions is critical to our health and preventing and addressing future disease outbreaks, we unfortunately suffer from a massive ‘trust deficit’ driven by the information explosion, with inaccurate, incomplete and misleading information fueling the trust decay.
Now, alarm bells are ringing as the incoming Trump administration openly challenges age–old assertions about science and medicine in ways that threaten our health and well–being. This includes weakening the foundations of the global health order at the World Health Organization, and dimming the beacons of progress and protection at the U.S. National Institutes for Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It is imperative that we rekindle ebbing trust in public institutions whose responsibility is to safeguard our future, but we must be realistic enough to accept the possibility that current efforts to restore trust may not succeed in time for the next health emergency.
With new health exigencies, we need to advance health security through diplomacy and policy, arming governments, communities, and our civic leaders with localized strategies that build health literacy and know–how. We need to protect our foundations of public health so we have systems in place to sustain the vaccines and medicines we need to live healthier lives, be prepared for the next pandemic, and invest in disease prevention and health promotion in communities where trust is still low.
A whole–of–society approach is required to rebuild trust in science and institutions responsible for health progress. One example is the Nature Medicine Commission on Quality Health Information for All to advance dialogue, publications, and offer a practical roadmap to enable individuals, communities, and government leaders to advance health literacy, increase investment in quality health communication, and establish access to quality health information as a right and collective responsibility.
The preamble to the 1946 constitution of the World Health Organization states that “informed opinion and active co–operation on the part of the public are of the utmost importance in the improvement of the health of the people.” Now more than ever we need to rise to this great task, harnessing our innate, acquired, and technological intelligence (including generative AI) to do so.
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Health as we knew it is at threat
Image courtesy of the United States Mission Geneva on Flickr. CC BY-ND 2.0
December 16, 2024
As political priorities change with a new U.S. presidential administration, now is the time to advance health security through diplomacy and policy, arming governments, communities, and our civic leaders with localized strategies that rebuild trust and build health literacy and know–how, writ
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echnology connects us instantaneously with democratized and decentralized information in legacy, digital, and social media. We have an almost limitless capacity to reach people. This should be a harbinger of progress that will empower us all. Yet, in 2024, the single event that will shape our future with potential cataclysmic effect is not this technology but its byproduct—the re–election of Donald Trump as U.S. President.
Joseph Nye warns that the 2024 election is a turning point in America, reflecting a realignment in American politics and a weakening of the norms, institutional constraints, and support for the international alliances and multilateral institutions that were supported by America after World War II.
As we claw our way back to some normalcy in the wake of the Covid pandemic, we need to remember that when health is at risk, everything is at risk. While trust in our institutions is critical to our health and preventing and addressing future disease outbreaks, we unfortunately suffer from a massive ‘trust deficit’ driven by the information explosion, with inaccurate, incomplete and misleading information fueling the trust decay.
Now, alarm bells are ringing as the incoming Trump administration openly challenges age–old assertions about science and medicine in ways that threaten our health and well–being. This includes weakening the foundations of the global health order at the World Health Organization, and dimming the beacons of progress and protection at the U.S. National Institutes for Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It is imperative that we rekindle ebbing trust in public institutions whose responsibility is to safeguard our future, but we must be realistic enough to accept the possibility that current efforts to restore trust may not succeed in time for the next health emergency.
With new health exigencies, we need to advance health security through diplomacy and policy, arming governments, communities, and our civic leaders with localized strategies that build health literacy and know–how. We need to protect our foundations of public health so we have systems in place to sustain the vaccines and medicines we need to live healthier lives, be prepared for the next pandemic, and invest in disease prevention and health promotion in communities where trust is still low.
A whole–of–society approach is required to rebuild trust in science and institutions responsible for health progress. One example is the Nature Medicine Commission on Quality Health Information for All to advance dialogue, publications, and offer a practical roadmap to enable individuals, communities, and government leaders to advance health literacy, increase investment in quality health communication, and establish access to quality health information as a right and collective responsibility.
The preamble to the 1946 constitution of the World Health Organization states that “informed opinion and active co–operation on the part of the public are of the utmost importance in the improvement of the health of the people.” Now more than ever we need to rise to this great task, harnessing our innate, acquired, and technological intelligence (including generative AI) to do so.
