8.M. Round table: The Why, the How, and the Tensions in the response of European SPHs to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic
Authors:   Organised by: ASPHER,   Chair persons: Alberto Fernández Ajuria (Spain), Robert Otok (ASPHER)
Published: October 2021

Abstract

With its repeated waves of infection and a high death toll in countries all over the world, the COVID-19 pandemic places the public health (PH) discipline at the centre of public attention. Thus, it is a crucial ethical requirement to activate all available resources of PH knowledge and skills, nationally as well as internationally, in response to the pandemic. Universities, Schools and Departments of Public Health (SPHs) hold important resources in terms of theoretical and practical competences. In order that PH professionals will have the necessary competences to deliver the Essential Public Health Operations (EPHOs) to combat health threats, e.g. pandemics, the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) has developed competency systems and lists for the PH workforce as well as for the academic knowledge and skills foundation of PH in its broadest sense. The membership of ASPHER thus represents a substantial resource of PH knowledge and skills, enabling the SPHs to play a critical role also in the COVID-19 pandemic. To develop the knowledge and skills resources further, ASPHER however set up a COVID-19 Task Force to describe and analyse the many-sided dynamic challenges, which the pandemic presents to society and thus to the role of PH institutions and professionals. Under normal circumstances, the central roles of the SPHs are teaching and research and, to a more limited extent, health communication to the public and giving advice to society's decision makers. The question however is, whether and to what extent these crucial resources actually are activated across the walls of the schools during the present pandemic. To throw light on this, the Task Force performed a survey on the actual, concrete role of ASPHER's members in the pandemic during 2020. Half (59) of the member SPHs responded. Eight out ten had engaged in both COVID-19 related teaching and communication to the public, and in COVID-19 related research as well as giving advice to national, regional and local decision makers. The target groups of teaching were PH students as well as students within other health disciplines. Health communication to the public was performed by use of a series of classic and modern media techniques. Both planned and published anti-COVID-19 research was reported. A large variation of subthemes was considered and employed within each of the four main themes, so that all ten Essential Public Health Operation (EPHO) main categories were represented. Consultancy was practiced in various international, national and local contexts and with effect on decision making. The main objective of the present panel discussion is to show and discuss, how European SPHs responded concretely to the COVID-19 pandemic through 2020, as shown in all main parts of their activities. Examples will be contact tracing (Dublin SPH), testing (Olomouc SPH), vaccination (Milan SR-SPH), training (Granada SPH), and development of mathematical simulation models (Copenhagen SPH).

Speakers/Panelists
Mary Codd University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland Alena Petráková Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Palacky University Olomouc, Olomouc, Czechia Carlo Signorelli University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy Alberto Fernández Ajuria Escuela Andaluza de Salud Pública, Granada, Spain Theis Lange Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Key messages
Thinking out of the box: SPHs adjusted quickly to the demand shaped by the pandemic. This counts for education/training, communication with the public, research, and providing consultancy/advice to national, regional and local society leaders.