Salvador Peiró
Epidemiologist, researcher in the Health Services and Pharmacoepidemiology Research Area of the Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research of the Valencian Community (FISABIO) and Director of Gaceta Sanitaria, the scientific journal of the Spanish Society of Public Health and Health Administration (SESPAS)
The fact that Congress has today ‘knocked down’ the bill that would have created the State Public Health Agency is not good news because of the delay in the implementation of a necessary institution for the protection of health in Spain.
From a public health perspective, the world is becoming very complicated. Climate change, desertification, migration, international mobility, increasing inequalities, technological deregulation, industrialisation of animal production are, among others, important risks for the increase of communicable and non-communicable diseases. War risks are also increasing and public health structures are essential in defence. The withdrawal of the USA from international health protection organisations, the dismantling of its scientific and public health structures, and the denial of science-based strategies in the USA increase these risks. Especially in the USA, but in a global world the problems in the USA will affect us all.
A complicated world in which, today more than ever, we need, among other things, a State Public Health Agency. Bad for everyone.