The concept of "circular health" centers the connections and interdependencies that exist between humans, other species, and the planet. A circular health approach moves beyond traditional approaches to consider the wellbeing of humans, animals, and ecosystems holistically. Transformative events like pandemics show animal health impacts human health and human wellbeing. Similarly, climate change and its implications for food systems, health and life expectancy of future generations provide a dramatic example of how human health is connected with environmental issues. The same applies to water pollution, extreme weather events and wildfires, all of which have an impact on human beings as well as animals and their ecosystems. Other examples of circular health issues include antibiotic resistance and its connections to sustainability and waste as well as the availability of information, access to education and other social issues. In this context, the impact of gender inequalities must also be mentioned. In order to overcome these challenges, the use of science and big data as well as the achievement of forms of successful global governance are of paramount importance.

Circular health should serve as both an academic and a policy-making framework. In particular, policy responses to the present and future challenges posed by interlinkages between different issues should take a holistic approach and consider these interlinkages. A strategy to do so is to adopt solutions that can be mapped onto the UN sustainable development goals, as these provide useful guidance on pressing economic, social, and environmental issues and how they are related. Fighting antibiotic resistance, for example, means deploying tactics that are relevant to sustainable development goals ranging from environmental sustainability to gender equality to access to quality education. More generally, all these different realms and aspects should be considered when thinking of solutions to global issues. For what concerns gender and gender inequalities, one way of doing this is consistently using disaggregated data to consider how issues impact people of different genders differently, both in policy and academia.

Scholars working to understand and solve present and future challenges should also be prepared to think and work across different disciplines and consider the wide variety of factors that influence a given problem. The Covid-19 pandemic and the spreading of avian influenza are two examples of how animal health affects human health, but also of how international relations and shortcomings in global governance are related to health issues. More specifically, research on the origins of Covid-19 has been hindered by the state of relations between China and the rest of the world. At the same time, cooperation on the pandemic response has come up against the position of some Western democracies regarding World Health Organization recommendations. For what concerns the avian flu, a global vaccination campaign has failed to take place because of its potential implications on trade. These are just two examples of how health and health responses can be determined by politics and international relations. As a consequence, scholars and practitioners must be prepared to adopt an interdisciplinary approach bringing together medicine and social as well as "hard" sciences.

Supported by the Associazione di cultura e di studio italo-americana Luciano Finelli Friends of the Johns Hopkins University
hosted by Professor Michael G. Plummer


In Italiano. Per motivi organizzativi è richiesta la conferma di partecipazione entro il 20 febbraio email: sais.eu.events@jhu.edu

La salute degli esseri umani è strettamente legata a quella delle altre creature della terra quali animali e piante, ma anche alla salute degli altri elementi dell'ambiente. La pandemia, l'emergenza climatica e la crisi alimentare ci hanno mostrato che dobbiamo affrontare la salute come sistema integrato che comprenda un approccio più inclusivo e circolare. Per sviluppare questo nuovo approccio è necessario avere un approccio allo studio della salute che sia più ampio e che includa le scienze sociali e le discipline umanistiche.

ILARIA CAPUA

Ilaria Capua è Senior Fellow of Global Health a SAIS Europe. Fino a febbraio 2023 Capua è stata Pre-eminent Full Professor e Direttore del Centro di Eccellenza One Health dell'Università della Florida, che promuove l'avanzamento della salute come sistema integrato attraverso approcci interdisciplinari.

Per oltre trent'anni ha diretto gruppi di ricerca a livello internazionale, lavorando sulle infezioni virali trasmissibili dagli animali all'uomo e sul loro potenziale pandemico. Nel 2006, a fronte della minaccia pandemica causata dal virus dell'influenza aviaria, ha lanciato un'iniziativa per condividere i dati genetici dei virus su piattaforme digitali open source. Questa decisione ha contribuito a ridefinire la politica delle organizzazioni internazionali ottimizzando le strategie per affrontare minacce globali, come le pandemie. Oggi, grazie proprio a quell'iniziativa milioni di sequenze di Sars-CoV-2 sono disponibili in database pubblicamente accessibili.

Capua è Grande Ufficiale della Repubblica italiana e nel 2021 le è stato assegnato il Premio Hypatia dall' Accademia Europea delle Scienze. Saggista e autrice di libri di grande successo tra cui ricordiamo " Salute Circolare, Il Dopo. Il virus che ci ha costretto a cambiare mappa mentale e La meraviglia e la trasformazione verso una salute circolare. E' editorialista del Corriere della Sera.

BIPR Scholars Ilaria Capua