Every month the Placing the Public in Public Health research team meet to discuss a piece of reading and how it relates to our project themes. We’ve found this a particularly useful way to advance our thinking around broad concepts such as the ‘public’.
This month we’re reading…
In 1944, the Daily Express columnist Beachcomber mocked social surveys by imagining a study on the accuracy of the measurement ‘a hairsbreadth.’
He wrote; ‘let [researchers from Gallup and Mass Observation] tear people’s hair out in handfuls in the cause of accuracy. Ninety-three per cent wouldn’t know…
Dwight D. Eisenhower. Marc Bolan. Jade Goody. Separated by generation, historical importance and orbits of fame, at first glance they appear to have precious little in common. Nonetheless, all are public figures that have in some way influenced public perceptions of public health.
It takes little imagination to think how…
We’ve seen a number of stories of late about how certain parents are eschewing vaccination for their children. At the School, Heidi Larson’s team is doing important work on the spread of ‘vaccine hesitancy’ and the extent of ‘vaccine confidence’. And it’s not that long ago that…
Vaccination is a complicated process. It involves coordination between many different areas of public life, so that immunisations can be manufactured, distributed and given to people. At the heart of it, however, you need an effective vaccine. That requires research in the laboratory.
At the top of the page is…
Public health has used “propaganda” to convey its message for a long time. Public information films, posters, leaflets, presentations at local meetings: all of these forms of education and persuasion are seen as vital when trying to get the general population to take precautions against disease.
While modern-day efforts…
The great success story of vaccination in the twentieth century was the eradication of smallpox. Although other public health techniques such as isolation and containment were necessary to eliminate the last few wild cases, vaccination was a key weapon against the disease from the late eighteenth century right up to…
Some things just don’t date well. Although public health communicators have used posters to put across their messages since the invention of the medium, the combination of images and words used can seem rather strange to us now. Take, for instance this poster from 1977 which is intended to…
Out shopping on a Saturday afternoon, I came across the Change4Life road show. This lively exhibition offered passers by the opportunity to take part in interactive games, such as a virtual supermarket sweep, designed to encourage people to make healthier food choices. There were also cooking demonstrations and if…
