The COVID-19 pandemic brought significant societal changes across social, economic, cultural and political landscapes. But researchers from New Mexico State University’s College of Health, Education and Social Transformation believe public health may have suffered the worst effects of the global crisis. Now, they’re calling on health practitioners and policymakers to address emerging health threats with a renewed focus. These experts shared their thoughts on the biggest public health dangers facing humanity.
Food insecurity from climate change
More than 10% of all Americans are food insecure, and almost a billion people worldwide struggle with food insecurity. As the world’s population continues to grow, so does the need to accelerate and increase food production, said Elizabeth England-Kennedy, an assistant professor of public health at NMSU.
“The key reason is climate change. Climate change affects production by causing extreme changes in weather systems, including drought, flooding, life-threatening heat, hailstorms and pollinator death,” England-Kennedy said. “Recent changes in weather and new threats to our environment, such as the 2023 El Niño pattern, wars and conflict, rising temperatures, refugees and displacement, will intensify these conditions, increasing individual and simultaneous crop failures and food shortages.”
The energy sector is a major driver of climate change, followed by agriculture/meat production, and both affect food production and distribution capacity, England-Kennedy said. Solutions include international collaborations, enhancing research and development for agricultural technology, pollution reduction, curtailing food waste and maldistribution, and a managed transition to clean energy, she said.
She added that collaborations between producers, researchers and policymakers may help increase production and distribution options, while enhanced weather modeling may help producers better adapt to rapidly changing conditions.
“New drought-resistant plant varieties, more efficient irrigation, better use of land and resources, and facilities and infrastructure updates are the need of the hour,” she said. “Creating a sustainable food system in response to climate change requires solutions at local and global levels. Changes must begin now.”
Health care workforce shortages
In the United States, health care professions enjoy some of the highest salaries and rapid growth in employment projections. Yet, there is a chronic shortage of health care professionals in most key positions, such as nurses, pharmacists and physical therapists, said Teresa Keller, a professor of nursing at NMSU.
These shortages existed even before the COVID-19 pandemic, Keller said, and are projected to grow over the next decade, making access to health care services more difficult for all in an aging nation.
“The COVID-19 pandemic changed the landscape of health care workforce with problems ranging from mental distress to death of health care workers,” she said.
Keller said recent estimates suggest that more than 100,000 health care workers worldwide died as a result of COVID-19, including almost 4,000 from the U.S. Additionally, a recent survey from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing suggests about 100,000 nurses nationwide left the workplace due to stresses caused by the pandemic.
“The economic and social drivers of these shortages are complex and addressing these shortages will require cooperation and thoughtful action in the health services sector,” Keller said.
To address these shortages, Keller suggests expanding and funding professional and continuing education, streamlining licensing requirements, loan repayment and other non-cash incentives, revising immigration policies for skilled foreign health care professionals, and developing strategies to build better workplaces where individuals can flourish.
Health information and misinformation
Health misinformation is a “claim of fact” about health-related phenomena that is false or misleading. Public reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic showed the very stark consequences of health misinformation, said Marshall Taylor, the interim associate dean for research in the College of HEST at NMSU.
“People who are susceptible to misinformation tend to be more distrustful of science and the government, which can lead people to be more resistant to public health measures,” Taylor said. “Health misinformation spreads for many reasons, and they are amplified by social media. For example, there is an entire fake news genre for monetizing online disinformation —intentional misinformation — and social media provides political actors with an opportunity to bypass news media’s vetting processes to spread unsubstantiated claims.”
Taylor said some individuals are more likely to believe and spread misinformation when the information aligns with their other deeply held beliefs (what researchers call “confirmation bias”) and when they consume media in echo chambers that elevate belief-consistent news sources and remove opportunities for exposure to disconfirming information. Further, health misinformation may spread on social media faster than accurate information because false information is more likely to be seen as novel and attention-grabbing, he said.
In 2021, the U.S. surgeon general issued an advisory to combat health misinformation. The report, Taylor said, emphasizes that this will be a “whole-of-society effort” that involves, among many other actions, promoting information literacy and crafting news headlines that avoid trying to provoke emotional reactions from readers.
Poor mental health
NMSU studies conducted by Jagdish Khubchandani, a professor of public health, during the pandemic found that anxiety and depression rates nearly doubled, higher stress resulted in unhealthy lifestyles and excess internet/media consumption led to psychological distress.
Before the pandemic, he said, nearly one in five people had a diagnosable mental health condition, including substance-use disorders. Now, the burden has substantially increased, but less than 10% government health budgets worldwide go toward mental health care.
“Over recent years, mental health problems have grown at a rate that far outpaces available mental health care services and resources,” he said. “The U.S. will spend nearly $300 billion this year on mental health care, and yet, more than half of those who need services will not get timely or adequate care,” he said.
He warned poor mental health may cause greater disability, reduced quality of life, incarceration, homelessness, overdose deaths and a higher number of suicides. Untreated mental illness in the U.S. may cost up to $300 billion every year in related productivity losses, he added.
“I call it a trillion-dollar problem in the U.S., given what we spend on treatment and what we lose due to untreated mental illnesses,” he said.
Khubchandani said policymakers should consider mental health care as an issue of social and economic development. He calls for higher government funding, reducing stigma around mental illnesses, and using more technological tools to improve health care.
“We all have a role to play, as well, by increasing awareness, creating a culture of mental health promotion, and watching out for those at risk or struggling,” he said.