The Wisdom of Prevention: How to Avert Pandemics that Harm Body and Soul

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, pay now or pay later, a stitch in time saves nine. We all know the logic of prevention, but few industries and few sectors take it seriously enough to invest in them the required resources. We all know that prevention is better than cure, but provincial ministries of health in Canada and parallel departments in the United States devote less than 1% of their budgets to prevention of mental health problems. Most of the money goes toward treatment. We want teenagers unprepared for parenthood to stop having children, but we are unwilling to invest in family planning, educational and preventive services. We know that about 26% of children in North America experience behavioral, learning, emotional or social problems, but nobody seems to panic. We understand that brain malleability is greatest during the first years of life, but we spend most of our economic and social resources on adults and seniors. We require a license to fish, but have no standards to ensure that parents know how to treat their children.

In the United States, every day about 5 children die from abuse and neglect. Of these children, most of them die before their fifth birthday. Most recent statistics indicate close to 3 million reports of suspected abuse per year, with about one million of these cases confirmed. Nearly 60% of the children suffered neglect while close to a fifth of the children was physically abused. Ten percent were sexually abused. Many kids also suffered emotional abuse, medical neglect and other forms of maltreatment. All over the world, child abuse and neglect inflict untold suffering in kids, families, and communities. The evidence is clear that we must invest in prevention and not just reactive services.

And yet, the data suggest that OECD countries invest only a small amount in prevention, usually less than 3% of health and human services budgets. The vast majority of resources are assigned to rehabilitative costs such as hospital beds, expensive treatments, or therapeutic interventions. This, despite the fact that high quality preventive interventions have proven efficacious, cost-effective, and enormously more humane than waiting for citizens to develop maladies that medicine and psychology can only treat at very high financial and human costs. The reactive approach, a vestige of the still dominant medical model, obstructs the imperative to devote more resources to prevention. For as long as local governments, states, provinces, nations and international bodies neglect prevention, not much will change in the health and well-being of the population. The status quo will only continue to deprive the poor and underserved of vital services and resources.

It is crucial to pay more attention to exemplary models of prevention. The tremendous imbalance between reactive and preventive approaches in favor of the former must be challenged, repaired, and healed, with great urgency. Otherwise, the endless treadmill of new cases will never cease. Health and human services must understand that no mass disorder, afflicting humankind, has ever been eliminated, or brought under control, by treating the affected individual. Similarly, they must realize that there will never be enough workers to attend to the people afflicted with psychological and physical ailments. The only way to make a dent in the incidence and prevalence of suffering is through prevention and health promotion. If we want to prevent another pandemic we must get to the root causes.

In the case of the coronavirus, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), are urging countries around the world to eliminate the sale of live wild animals of mammalian species in traditional food markets. The interim guidance, published April 12, 2021, states the following:

“Significant problems can arise when these markets allow the sale and slaughter of live animals, especially wild animals, which cannot be properly assessed for potential risks – in areas open to the public. When wild animals are kept in cages or pens, slaughtered and dressed in open market areas, these areas become contaminated with body fluids, faeces and other waste, increasing the risk of transmission of pathogens to workers and customers and potentially resulting in spill over of pathogens to other animals in the market. Such environments provide the opportunity for animal viruses, including coronaviruses, to amplify themselves and transmit to new hosts, including humans.”

We must heed their warning, and abide by the wisdom of prevention.

Dr. Isaac Prilleltensky is an award-winning academic and author. He is also a coach, consultant and a researcher. His latest book, co-authored with his wife, Dr. Ora Prilleltensky, is How People Matter: Why it Affects Health, Happiness, Love, Work, and Society (Cambridge University Press, 2021). Press here to pre-order.