The COVID-19 pandemic has turned our lives upside down. People are isolated at home with time on their hands. Anxiety levels are high.
One way to cope is to adopt or to foster an animal. Shelters and rescue organizations report record numbers of applications, and some places are empty of animals for the first time ever.
COVID-19, climate change, neglected tropical diseases, recently released health education modules and videos on our work, a new smartphone app — these are all topics of recent stories posted on WiRED International’s website.
How we treat ourselves, our animals and our planet is a matter of life or death. Earth Day 2020 reminds us to address climate change in terms of One Health — the intersection of human, animal and environmental health. The COVID-19 pandemic is teaching us that we must be responsible for each other — everywhere.
Solving the climate crisis. Stopping infectious diseases. Preparing for epidemics. Training health workers. These issues and more make up the World Health Organization’s (WHO) newly issued 13 global health challenges which we face in the next decade.
The American Public Health Association (APHA) created National Public Health Week to promote important public health ideas, contributions and issues. This year, APHA will focus on six public health topics: (1) healthy communities, (2) violence prevention, (3) rural health, (4) technology and public health, (5) climate change, and (6) global health. Four of these themes touch on WiRED International’s mission to bring free health learning education to underserved communities worldwide.
I am an employee and volunteer with The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California. As the marine mammal hospital with the world’s largest number of patients, the Center advances global ocean conservation through marine mammal rescue and rehabilitation, scientific research and education.
On January 21, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a list of ten threats (see sidebar) impacting global health, which WHO and its partners will focus on in 2019. According to WHO, “The world is facing multiple health challenges. These range from outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases like measles and diphtheria, increasing reports of drug-resistant pathogens, growing rates of obesity and physical inactivity to the health impacts of environmental pollution and climate change and multiple humanitarian crises.”
Many of WiRED’s board members, staff and volunteers live in California, and, as I write this essay, we are holed up in our homes, able to venture outside only for chores and obligations we cannot avoid. When I worked in Iraq and stayed in safe-houses, it was sometimes the same.
November 3, 2018, is One Health Day. One Health Day reminds us of the critical link among humans, animals and the environment we all share. It further reminds us that to address the health of human populations, we must also address the health of animals and of the planet that hosts all living things.
Do animals have the power to benefit human health? For the past 10 years the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has funded an ongoing range of studies focused on humans’ relationships with animals.