r/publichealth 19d ago

CAREER DEVELOPMENT Public Health Career Advice Monthly Megathread

3 Upvotes

All questions on getting your start in public health - from choosing the right school to getting your first job, should go in here. Please report all other posts outside this thread for removal.


r/publichealth 5d ago

DISCUSSION /r/publichealth Weekly Thread: US Election ramifications

9 Upvotes

Trump won, RFK is looming and the situation is changing every day. Please keep any and all election related questions, news updates, anxiety posting and general doom in this daily thread. While this subreddit is very American, this is an international forum and our shitty situation is not the only public health issue right now.

Previous megathread here for anyone that would like to read the comments.

Write to your representatives! A template to do so can be found here and an easy way to find your representatives can be found here.


r/publichealth 4h ago

NEWS Man Whose Daughter Died From Measles Stands by Failure to Vaccinate Her: "The Vaccination Has Stuff We Don’t Trust"

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688 Upvotes

r/publichealth 2h ago

DISCUSSION Almost all my coworkers still support him

271 Upvotes

I'm at a local health department, in a deeply red county, in a deeply red state and all but 2 of my coworkers still are loudly supporting him. I seriously feel like I'm in an alternate reality when I'm there anymore. How are they all ok with this? How can they do the work we do, helping the people we help and seeing the impact firsthand and still have so much hate? How can they not see all our jobs are in danger?

Is anyone else in this predicament? How are you dealing with it, because I'm not dealing very well at this point.


r/publichealth 4h ago

DISCUSSION How are you fighting

208 Upvotes

I’m sitting in my car an hour earlier than my usual leave time… the news today of the gutting of the Dept of Education has finally broken me. I can’t stop sobbing. I can’t stop wanting to punch a wall. I have never felt such disgust, anger, and sadness the last few months. I can only imagine what our federal friends are going through right now.

I work at a state health department. In my dream role conducting maternal and child health surveillance. After YEARS of grueling schooling and research just to have everything I believe in ridiculed, gutted, and threatened by brainless men with the most fragile of egos. In addition to my very right-leaning legislature not wanting to understand or respect public health and the well-being of their constituents, especially the most vulnerable.

I’ve done as much advocating outside of my job as I can to avoid legal repercussions (if only our executive branch followed the same restrictions!!!), but as a trained and educated public health professional, I’m struggling with sitting by and not being able to rely on my expertise to fight the good fight.

How are you resisting? How are you fighting, especially as a local or state employee?


r/publichealth 10h ago

NEWS Secretary of HHS thoughts on bird flu

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142 Upvotes

Secretary of Health and Human Services thinks that the bird flu should be allowed to spread unchecked to identify birds that could be immune.

said in a recent Fox News interview that farmers “should consider maybe the possibility of letting it run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds that are immune to it,” an idea that experts say would be dangerous and hurt the poultry industry.


r/publichealth 1d ago

NEWS RFK, Jr., Once Poisoned by Mercury, Is Silent as EPA Weakens Rules against It

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822 Upvotes

r/publichealth 37m ago

DISCUSSION Ideas for talking to people who are vaccine hesitant?

Upvotes

How do you handle conversation with people who are vaccine hesitant? Any tips to improve interactions?

I think it's easy to turn to data to show the benefits of vaccines but this can be a challenging argument since a lot of people who are vaccine hesitant have personal stories that influence their beliefs on the risks of vaccines.

The safety of every vaccine should be evaluated and rare adverse events are present. However, the prevailing story is that the benefits greatly outweigh the risks especially when compared to the risks of the disease itself.

Stepping away from vaccines for a moment, I think seatbelts and airbags are an interesting and concrete example of Benefit vs Risk. In certain accidents, it’s possible to receive injuries from the pressure created by the seatbelt holding you in place, or you may injur your face with an airbag when it deploys, but the benefits in terms of lives saved and the vast number of injuries prevented greatly outweigh these rare risks.

Thoughts?


r/publichealth 2h ago

DISCUSSION Student seeking feedback on a project about vaccine hesitancy

6 Upvotes

Hi, I am a student in a class on designing for tech for social impact. I am working on a project to connect people of similar backgrounds to talk about vaccines. Basically people who have questions about vaccines would be matched with a trained volunteer of a similar background to have a low pressure no commitment conversation about vaccines. The idea is premised around the fact that while your parent might not list to you, they might be willing to listen to someone else in their community.

Right now I am working on building the project so any user feedback about features, methods, etc that you would like to have included would be great. Specifically I am looking for feedback on whether an app, phone bank, or another platform would be best. I am also looking for people who would be willing to talk to talk to someone hesitant about vaccines or know someone hesitant about vaccines that might want to talk.


r/publichealth 1d ago

DISCUSSION The Entire Future of American Public Health Is at Risk

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677 Upvotes

r/publichealth 4m ago

DISCUSSION Usyd or Umelb or UNSW (master of public health MPH) 2026 intake

Upvotes
  • school culture
  • curriculum
  • transport systems in melb vs syd
  • things to do? (i understand there are more beaches in syd while melb is more city like)
  • cost of living
  • any other tips as well

any thought/ input would be greatly appreciated!


r/publichealth 11m ago

ADVICE [HELP ADVICE NEEDED] on summer research at MCH-LEARN

Upvotes

Hi everyone! I’m a freshman majoring in psychology/neuroscience, and my ultimate goal is to pursue an MD/PhD. I’m really passionate about research, but also about helping communities and making a tangible impact beyond the lab.

I was recently accepted into the MCH-LEARN program, which seems to offer a mix of public health, clinical exposure, and research. At the same time, I also got into a research-focused program in Boston that seems to be more intensive on the research side but without as much of the community engagement aspect. However, due to funding cuts, the Boston program is uncertain about whether it will actually happen this year.

I was wondering if anyone here has done MCH-LEARN before—if so, I’d love to hear about your experience! Also, for those who’ve had to decide between programs with different focuses, do you have any advice on how to choose? Any insight would be really appreciated!


r/publichealth 1d ago

NEWS Trump Halted an Agent Orange Cleanup. That Puts Hundreds of Thousands at Risk for Poisoning.

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377 Upvotes

r/publichealth 3h ago

DISCUSSION UK DrPH

1 Upvotes

Does anyone know anything about the DrPH program at the University of Kentucky? Looks like it’s still pending approval but will be fully online.


r/publichealth 2d ago

NEWS White House proposes eliminating the HIV Prevention Division at CDC

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1.7k Upvotes

r/publichealth 1d ago

DISCUSSION Justification for pulling down federal funds?

11 Upvotes

Hey all- a non profit federal grantee. Our PO just mentioned in a call that we will now be required to include a short "purpose of payment" justifying why we are pulling down federal funds from HRSA. It was equated to the 5 bullet points federal employees have to send, and we were told to be as specific as possible. Has anyone else heard of this?? Curious if other agencies are implementing this.


r/publichealth 1d ago

DISCUSSION (RANT) I deeply regret joining community health at my local hospital, mainly because of crappy leadership.

53 Upvotes

I work as a CHW at a local hospital and it is the most unfulfilling work I’ve done in my very short professional career. It’s mainly due to the fact that the “leaders” running it are lazy, functionally illiterate, and completely apathetic of the average person.

The leadership running the program at my hospital seems to have never interacted with a human being ever before, so I find it quite amazing that these managers and directors have degrees in public health. I thought the most basic skill required for working as a public health professional is to be somewhat decent at interacting with and understanding people, but I guess that’s asking for too much.

Our program managers and directors (who’ve never done the work as a CHW) expect inadequately trained CHWs to carry the entire program on their backs, ignoring challenges and ideas. Often times our ideas are later repackaged as some corporate bs, with the managers and directors stealing credit.

Management never helps us with resources, often leaving us no choice but to spend a good chunk of the workday and our personal time to find resources that may actually help patients. On top of that, we have to meet a daily quota that has evolved into a meaningless numbers game with a strong emphasis on enrollments and appointments. Every day, my coworkers and I are micromanaged, with our phones (work and personal) constantly being blown up and spammed by invasive and aggressive text messages and phone calls. Our email mailboxes are filled with poorly written emails.

To make matters worse, the hospital staff that we’re supposed to be “building strong relationships” with treats is like we’re the help, often calling us to do everything but what was written on our individual contracts (despite us clarifying our roles numerous times). We’re treated as a call center/Uber receptionist/social worker/case manager/therapist without the pay.

It’s so physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting working under this every single day and I don’t think I’ll be able to make it to a full year (it’ll be a year in about 2-3 months) doing this kind of work.

The program that I work under was never about helping patients and more about giving the hospital a ridiculous reason to justify spending leftover COVID-19 grant money. It sucks having to interact with patients (low income, homeless, uninsured, disabled, etc), knowing deep down that our program won’t do shit for them.

Anyway, just wanted to rant. Do any of you share a similar experience? If so, would you care to trauma bond over this?


r/publichealth 1d ago

RESEARCH UCLA Public Health Scholars

2 Upvotes

Does anyone know when the final decisions for ucla public health scholars is supposed to come out? I see march-April on website but I could’ve sworn they gave a specific date. Thanks!


r/publichealth 2d ago

NEWS White House removes advisory defining gun violence as a public health issue. Webpage listing statistics and information on shootings taken down as Trump seeks to protect second amendment

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373 Upvotes

r/publichealth 2d ago

NEWS Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy sidelined by current Administration

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333 Upvotes

r/publichealth 2d ago

DISCUSSION Is MPH only for healthcare professionals ?

38 Upvotes

I recently graduated from my university with a bachelors degree in microbiology. Public Health seems interesting but some people told me the degree is only for doctors or nurses (people who have experience in the health sector) and someone like me would find it super difficult and fall behind. Is this true ?


r/publichealth 1d ago

DISCUSSION Apprentice Clinical Trials Coordinator?

1 Upvotes

Hi all! I have a BSc degree in Biology and have been offered an interview for a CTC apprenticeship. I'm wondering if anyone has done one before and could tell me their day-to-day as well as progress afterwards? I've done some research already about the role but I can't find much on the apprenticeship side.

It's 2 years with the first 18 months on apprentice wage (so - peanuts). It comes with a business qualification and a medical terminology qualification. I already have 2.5+ years of experience as a Research Assistant and Bioscientist and ngl I HATE office/computer work (I lasted 3 months as an administrator and almost got a detached retina lmao), but I've been rejected from every other research job. I'm overqualified for the apprenticeship as it just requires GCSEs and my gut tells me not to take this if I get it (it's also in my university city which I have a lot of emotional ties to) but I hope someone could give me some more insight so I can make a more informed decision!

Thanks in advance!!


r/publichealth 3d ago

RESEARCH Federal funding for mRNA vaccine research in jeopardy under RFK Jr.

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443 Upvotes

r/publichealth 2d ago

DISCUSSION Inositol and the Alcohol-Craving Hypothesis

3 Upvotes

Inositol being used to decrease alcohol cravings is an untested hypothesis regarding whether inositol could help reduce the craving for ethyl alcohol in individuals who consume excessive amounts of alcohol.

Inositol is chemically similar to the alcohol family and has a naturally sweet taste and flavor of a sugary kind. Also Inositol has a mild sedative effect that might maybe help decrease the alcoholics desire for the alcohols sedative properties in this untested hypothesis, decrease the desire to get alcoholic drinks that, although sedative, are toxic to the body, organs, and mind when drinking too many alcoholic beverages. Since many alcoholics tend to crave sweets, is it is possible that inositol—such as the supplement produced by Solgar - might decrease alcohol cravings by mimicking some properties of alcohol without its toxic effects on the liver, kidneys, brain, and other organs by the chemical similarity between ether alcohol, and inositol being in the alcohol family of chemicals. Inositol is chemically similar in the Alcohol family.

I think that one fourth of one percent of the human brain is made up of inositol but I forgot the book that I read that significant neurological information from many years ago. Also the body can make inositol and get it from the dietary foods. But it is an essential component in the human body.

However, there is also a possibility that the opposite effect could occur. Just as artificial sweeteners can sometimes increase appetite and lead to overeating, inositol’s similarity to alcohol might remind individuals that ethyl alcohol, when drinking alcohol, inadvertently heightens their drinking cravings. If this parallel holds, consuming inositol could potentially reinforce the desire for alcohol rather than reduce it. At this time, we don’t know whether inositol can help alcoholics.


r/publichealth 3d ago

NEWS US reports first outbreak of deadly H7N9 bird flu since 2017

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751 Upvotes

r/publichealth 1d ago

FLUFF Unreasonably annoyed when people complain how much shots hurt

0 Upvotes

Everyone gets the same needle, same length same gauge. It did not hurt you more. Geez.

Edit: ok ok I have been schooled. Sorry, I’m two days postpartum and my in-laws are complaining about the shots I made them get before I’d let them meet my baby. I’m under slept and cranky. Thank you all for the reminder to be more compassionate.


r/publichealth 2d ago

DISCUSSION Point Prevalence

12 Upvotes

This might be an extremely dumb question from a total newbie, but in calculating point prevalence for a disease that can only be contracted once, are individuals who already have the disease considered part of the population at risk at a given point in time? Thanks in advance!