Student interest in this field soared since the pandemic’s start. Experts hope this is a turning point

CNN — Several weeks after world health officials declared the coronavirus a pandemic, 40-year-old Sheri McCaskill decided to apply to a master’s program in public health. “Good news that we’re able to get more and more people interested in public health,” she added. “Public health ultimately is about the conditions that create health for people,” said Sandro Galea, dean of the Boston University School of Public Health. “Public health became really visible and people understand its importance.” The pandemic, Magaña said, in combination with a younger generation passionate about issues like social justice and climate change – both of which have been at the forefront of global conversations in the past year – likely led to the jump in applicants. It could have been stopped.” In March, American Public Health Association Executive Director Georges C. Benjamin applauded the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act, which funnels several billion into sustaining and expanding the public health workforce, calling the move a “temporary sigh of relief.” “The Covid moment has shown us that, if it’s shown us nothing else, that we have had a long-standing underinvestment in creating enough people for public health,” said Boston University’s Galea.