Public Health Without Borders: The New Geography of Trust

What to know

  • Presentation Day/Time: Wednesday, April 23, 11:15–11:30 am
  • Presenter: Karlyn Beer, MS, PhD, Epidemic Intelligence Service Class of 2023
Karlyn Beer, MS, PhD

TED-Style Talks

During COVID-19, many Americans turned not to health departments, but to their employers and other trusted messengers for guidance - with surveys showing higher trust in corporate CEOs than government officials. Drawing from my transition from EIS and CDC to a public health tech startup and ARPA-H, I'll share how this new "trust reality" offers both challenges and opportunities for public health practice.

Through specific examples - from advising a rubber plantation CEO during the 2014 Ebola epidemic in Liberia, to creating nowcasts and employee testing plans for organizations like financial services, airlines, and global software firms to protect their workforces during COVID - I'll illustrate how our epidemiologic expertise remains vital in unexpected places.

At a time when public health authorities at all levels face both resource constraints and historic distrust, I've learned that we can amplify our impact by acting as bridges to trusted entities like human resource departments and corporate leaders, drawing on our EIS training and public health practice tools - from communication to community needs assessments to collecting the right data that let us meet people where they are when they need it most.

When epidemiologists work as embedded experts in these trusted spaces, we can create new channels for public health impact: offering data-driven guidance without direct regulatory constraints, translating broad public health recommendations into actionable plans for specific organizational contexts, and supporting evidence-based decision-making in spaces that might otherwise operate without public health awareness, while preserving and protecting the irreplaceable role of governmental public health systems in surveillance, response, and population health protection.

If the 2024 election was a barometer for the loss of trust in the systems we have built and know can save lives, then we can be confident that our field's future effectiveness will depend on our ability to work through new trusted intermediaries while strengthening, not replacing, traditional public health structures.

Field Photos

Karlyn Beer, MS, PhD (EIS Class of 2023) and Liberia county health team colleagues discussing local clinic capacity and preparedness plans near the border with Cote d'Ivoire.
Karlyn Beer, MS, PhD (EIS Class of 2023) and Liberia county health team colleagues discussing local clinic capacity and preparedness plans near the border with Cote d'Ivoire.
Karlyn Beer, MS, PhD (EIS Class of 2023) (center) and members of Liberia’s Grand Kru County ambulance and burial team, after a PPE donning/doffing training.
Karlyn Beer, MS, PhD (EIS Class of 2023) (center) and members of Liberia’s Grand Kru County ambulance and burial team, after a PPE donning/doffing training.

Abstract Category: TED-Style Talks

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Content Source:
About Public Health Infrastructure Center; Epidemic Intelligence Service