Tulane University’s Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine hosted National Public Health Week, an initiative of the American Public Health Association, from April 6 to 12.
Several panels, presentations and tabling events following this year’s theme of “Ready. Set. Action!” took place Uptown, Downtown and online. Tulane faculty, along with medical professionals, researchers, politicians and members of the greater public health community, shared their work at the events.
During the kickoff event on Monday, the president of the APHA, Nandi Marshall, iterated the meaning and goal of the week, which was to introduce the wider population to the importance of public health.
The forum, titled “Public health in the age of deception: Confronting the misinformation crisis,” discussed uncertainty surrounding healthcare policy.
“In a landscape where misinformation moves faster than the diseases and viruses that we are tracking, our ability to translate rigorous science into community-level trust is our most vital tool,” Marshall said.
Katherine Andrinopoulos, associate professor at the School of Public Health, moderated a conversation and screening of “Cuts and Consequences: The End of USAID” on Tuesday, April 6. The documentary outlines the global impact following large cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development by the Trump administration, specifically in Kenya and Ghana.
“Our reason for exploring the impacts of USAID cuts is not to adjudicate the morality of these political decisions,” Andrinopoulos said during her opening remarks. “Instead, as you watch the video, I encourage you to question what we will do moving forward.”
National Public Health Week “is an opportunity for reflection, camaraderie with fellow public health colleagues and recommitment to being a part of improving health in low-and middle-income countries, despite the setbacks we’ve experienced this past year,” Andrinopoulos said. “The need to invest in global health is stronger than ever, but the mechanisms for how to do so are forever changed.”
Other events during the week included packaging food for the unhoused community of New Orleans, a panel on non-profit public health, a SPHTM merchandise sale and presentations on mental health and reproductive justice.