From COVID-19 to mass shootings, America fails to focus on prevention
There are striking parallels between America’s public health epidemics and our gun violence crisis. I wish that we could have prevented all the pain caused by the most recent mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, but realize now that prevention itself is a concept that seems to be absent among our country's leaders.
As a pediatrician, I strongly believe in the importance of preventive medicine. Preventive medicine works to prevent disease from occurring when possible, instead of waiting for disease onset in order to start treatment. This approach to public health has been proven to control both health care costs and chronic, life-threatening illnesses.
True preventive health care often becomes an impossible feat in America, where many are without adequate access. We find ourselves in a snowball effect of poor health and high health care costs.
It is clear that America has a problem with prevention itself. We wait until damage has been done and the root issue has got away from us. I think about the recent COVID-19 epidemic and how, instead of early vaccine endorsement, many U.S. leaders seeded doubt in the vaccine, while supporting COVID-19 treatments once patients are already infected.
According to a recent article by NPR, researchers at Brown University and Microsoft AI Health estimate that over 300,000 deaths due to COVID could have been avoided if vaccination had been universal. People died because our country's leaders politicized vaccination rather than focusing on disease prevention. With 1 million Americans now dead from COVID-19, it makes one wish we could start over.
Another public health issue that should be addressed with appropriate prevention efforts is abortion. With the possibility of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, I have seen abortion debated all over social media, but I rarely see leadership prioritize funding the steps we can take before arriving at abortion.
In my experience, pro-choice people agree that abortion should be “safe, legal and rare.” I think common sense tells us that access to health care, access to birth control and extensive, science-based inclusive sex education would prevent thousands of unplanned pregnancies. Instead, many women find themselves in a dire position and abortion as their best choice, looking back in time how they could have prevented this.
In the wake of another horrific shooting that stole the future of 19 innocent children and two incredibly brave teachers, it is clear that our nation is again letting citizens down by not investing in proper prevention. Gun violence is an increasingly dire issue for children and adolescents as the leading cause of death of children and teens in the U.S.
Following the most recent tragedy in Uvalde, I’ve seen countless people take to the internet calling for the arming of teachers or increased security in schools. My question, the same question I have when it comes to COVID, abortion, obesity and countless other issues in our nation, is: Why don’t we start at the root of the problem?
Why don’t we prevent these atrocious shootings from ever starting rather than asking our teachers to engage in gun combat to protect our children? Why don’t we ban assault rifles instead of increasing the security presence at schools? Why don’t we increase the age limit required for the purchase of firearms instead of bulletproofing classroom windows? Why don’t we run background checks and psychological evaluations before firearm purchase instead of suggesting homeschooling for our kids?
Additionally, these questions don’t even begin to address the mass shootings which occur outside of schools. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been more than 220 mass shootings in 2022 alone.
We cannot get stuck in the never-ending reactive cycle of reports of these appalling events — shock and despair, indignation, followed by angry tweeting and, eventually, acceptance that things will never change. We need to fight for policy change. We must hold the leadership of our nation accountable for the lives that have been lost to gun violence. We must vote for leaders who promise to enact the change that will prevent these past tragedies from ever happening again.
If you would like Congress to act on gun control, start by calling them today and ask them to vote yes on H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021 and H.R. 1446 the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021. If you’re looking for more ways to get involved, text ACT to 66433 to join Everytown for Gun Safety.
Madelin Schneck, MD, is a Gainesville pediatrician.
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This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Madelin Schneck: Focus on prevention in health care, mass shootings
