An Inside Look @” is a DeVito/Verdi video series created to give an “inside look” at a trending topic of today. Each episode features a subject matter expert addressing a handful of questions that help educate, enlighten and inform viewers on the topic.

“Global Public Health and the ‘Fauci Effect'”

Featuring – Julia Cartwright: NYU School of Global Public Health

Julia Cartwright, Associate Dean of Communications at NYU School of Global Public Health discusses the COVID-19 pandemic and the affect it had on the future of Global Public Health.

Q: What is Global Public Health?

A: Public health is the treatment of whole populations as opposed to just an individual patient. We had twin epidemics going on. Not just of COVID-19 but also of structural racism. We’re focused on a very broad range of epidemiology, biostatistics, environmental public health, climate change homelessness, anti-racism efforts so much more than just what you see with, as devastating as it is, as the pandemic we’re going through now. 

Q: How has COVID-19 affected the field of Global Public Health?

A: Our Dean often says that going into the field of public health is not just the pursuit of a career but it’s a calling, and I would really agree with that. A year and a half ago public health really wasn’t even on the radar screen and then as the pandemic took off and the lockdown began and New York became the epicenter for the epidemic people suddenly woke up to the field of public health they realized how important it was and we have what people in the field have called ‘The Fauci Effect’

Q: Who is entering the filed of Global Public Health today?

A: Our mission is to reinvent the public health paradigm by inspiring innovative scholarship practice and leadership across boundaries. We have students who have decided to switch careers or pursue the field of public health from undergrad and then graduate school. People are really pursuing this field because they wanna make a difference and they want to save lives for a living.

Q: What are the lessons of this pandemic?

A: When we’re talking about the mission of the school and kind of reinventing the way people see public health that certainly is needed now more than ever. People couldn’t imagine that they would ever have a pandemic that would come and lock us away for a year plus and have so much loss of life. We really need to focus on reinventing the way that we view public health and respond to crises like these because there will be another pandemic at some point. It’s a global problem we need new thinking and we’re so thrilled that we have so many people around the world who are answering that call to come into the field of public health.

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