Polityka zdrowia publicznego opartego na dowodach i pandemia COVID-19

Public health has always sought to use scientific findings in health-enhancing activities. At the end of the twentieth century, a program to use scientifically validated evidence in public health – evidence based public health (EBPH) – was formulated. Rigorous application of evidence was supposed to guarantee effective and efficient interventions. When the global threats of Covid 19 pandemic appeared, it seemed to be a great opportunity for EBPH to reaffirm its value. Societies, as well as governments, could have hoped that scientifically equipped public health would be able to cope well with the threat. However, reality has brought disappointment. It turned out that public health does not have enough confirmed evidence to support policymakers. In many situations, both politicians and medical doctors had to make quick and inevitably intuitive decisions, without documented evidence. The pandemic has forced the need to search for evidence more quickly, but it has raised the question of whether the procedure for validating evidence must be as rigorous as it had been recommended in the past. Under pressure emerging needs, a number of evidence-based recommendations have been prepared and offered to decisionmakers to be used.