The Turning Point: Reflections on a Pandemic

In the early years of COVID-19, Americans witnessed the intersection of a global pandemic, an economic collapse, and civil unrest that galvanized the country and the world and ushered in an era of unprecedented disruption. Three years later, we can begin to reflect on the experience of the pandemic and ask ourselves how the lessons of that experience can inform a healthier present and future.

The Turning Point: Reflections on a Pandemic examines the first years of COVID-19 through the lens of population health, revealing a critical turning point in our engagement with key public health issues. Through a series of short, provocative essays, the authors leverage their experience as prominent public health leaders to untangle the social, economic, environmental, and political forces at work in our response to the pandemic. Combining cutting-edge data with philosophical insights, these bold and revelatory essays encourage us to broaden and sharpen our vision of health and renegotiate policies that can allow health to flourish in extraordinary-and ordinary-times.

Michael D. Stein is Professor and Chair of Health Law, Policy and Management of the School of Public Health at Boston University. He is primary care doctor and has been a leader in general medicine and substance use research and policy for decades. He is Executive Editor of Public Health Post, a popular website on matters of population health. He is the author of award-winning novels and works of non-fiction. He has been interviewed by Terry Gross on “Fresh Air” and has been included in Best American Essays Notables.

Sandro Galea is Robert A Knox Professor and Dean of the School of Public Health at Boston University. He is a past president of the Society for Epidemiologic Research and of the Interdisciplinary Society for Population Health Science, past chair of the board of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health, and is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.