Category Archives: Epidemiology
William Foege Q&A: Public Health Law
William Foege
More than 500 public health legal experts, advocates, practitioners and researchers gathered in Atlanta, Georgia, this week to discuss the top issues facing the field. William Foege, MD, MPH, kicked off the conference with a keynote address at the 2012 Public Health Law Conference. Foege is a celebrated epidemiologist and physician who played a leading role in many of the important public health campaigns of the past half-century, including efforts to eradicate smallpox. Dr. Foege previously served as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and formed the Task Force for Child Survival and Development.
In his keynote address, Dr. Foege said, “Every public health decision is based on a political decision. The basis for political decisions is law.” He also urged attendees to take action. “Burying our heads is no longer an option. There are solutions, but they require changing the laws that affects what happen to our health.”
We caught up with Dr. Foege to get his take on the critical role of public health law.
>>Follow continued coverage of the Public Health Law Conference.
NewPublicHealth: As keynote speaker, what was important to you to convey to the hundreds of people in public health capacities attending the 2012 Public Health Law Conference?
Dr. William Foege: What I have emphasized is that the law is probably the second best tool we have ever had in public health after epidemiology. We’ve used it for a long time even if we did not have a formal organization, and when one looks at all of the spectrum of things accomplished from fluoridation to school entry requirements for immunization to what’s happened with air quality and water quality, you realize that this has been very important for public health.
NPH: What is one public health issue you’d point to that has been helped significantly by laws to carry it forward?
