Evidence-Based Health and pandemics: Planetary Health dilemmas and the individual decision of population impact

Abstract

During his trajectory in clinical practice and in research, the physician, professor and researcher Airton Tetelbom Stein understood that, in order to be a good doctor, a deep scientific foundation is necessary. In an interview with Reciis, Stein discusses the concept of Evidence-Based Health in its relevance to integrate the best evidence with clinical experience and patients’ values and preferences. Based on his experience in Family Practice, Stein emphasizes that epidemics and pandemics, such as covid-19, reveal the impact of climate change on the population’s health. He also emphasizes that one of the pillars of Primary Health Care is the understanding of the causes of the emergence of diseases within the population. In this sense, in social dynamics, especially the mediatic dynamics about covid-19, Stein clarifies that decisions about early treatment, whether to vaccinate or not, concern the valuation of assumptions based on non-systematized information to the detriment of robust methodologies, refer to individual decisions that impact the health of the population. “People who have refused to vaccinate need to understand that this is not just a matter of individual freedom.” Airton Tetelbom Stein is full professor of Public Health at the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre (UFCSPA) and a family practice physician at Conceição Hospital Group.