Prof. Jaroslaw Pinkas: the main public health problem is good health choices

Today we are talking about strategic recommendations for 2023 2027 in the context of public health. What are the most important challenges for 2023-2027 in the context of public health? What risks do we face?

There are a lot of them. We are constantly exposed to various types of threats. They appear, sometimes disappear, but unfortunately there are more of them than before. This is mainly due to the fact that we are getting all kinds of information, which is also generated by the Internet. There is a lack of trust in authority figures. Hence the important role of influencers, unfortunately sometimes also in messing with our heads.

The main public health issue is good health choices. It is the ability to find, in the thicket of information, the information that is good for us, that is proven, that is based on reliable data on evidence. The world is changing a lot, and threats are arising in very different places. For example, right now we have a big threat that is emerging in the United States. This is fentanyl, a very cheap and widely available drug, which is also unfortunately vaping, very popular among young people. This needs to be brought under control so that it doesn't get into Poland. It probably already is, but if we talk about it, if we are principled, it will not reach us on such a scale. There are also issues of relativization of certain events. These are, for example, e-cigarettes, which most unfortunately claim are completely harmless. We have a completely different knowledge. This is something that, first of all, is addictive, and secondly, it also causes disease syndromes, such as those related to lung failure. These are unfortunately strong addictions.

It used to be that in order to write something, one had to bend over a draft, give the text to an editor and only someone would publish it. At the moment, what is born in our heads can be tapped out on the Internet in seconds. This is the real virus. This is a virus that doesn't spread by droplets, but by air. It is sometimes more dangerous than a great variety of other viruses that affect us, and of course a vaccine has to be found for it. Everyone is working on it. This vaccine is not easy to create, for the reason that there are those who live to sow disinformation, to live on untrue information they monetize this often by offering us all sorts of activities that are not based on knowledge, but are based solely on making them something out of it. We are subjected to the usual hybrid war.

It is certainly a very big challenge to raise a healthy society. And the obstacles are: first - low physical activity second - the epidemic of obesity among children and young people, third - young people are reaching for stimulants....

These are huge pains. They unfortunately affect the whole world. After the pandemic period, we have huge problems, if only with obesity. We also have huge problems with stimulants, there are more and more of them. Unfortunately, we also have problems with growing movements that question immunization. The solution is for us to learn to choose well, for our health competence to be shaped from childhood at the family table, but also later in a principled way through school. Of course, I'm not in favor of censoring the Internet, but I am in favor of having vetted content out there and being able to discriminate to some extent against what is dangerous.