Children's Health Defense
The U.S. last week introduced a national framework for One Health to help the country prepare for “the next potential threat” to public health — but critics argue the plan will expand government surveillance and crisis-driven health policies.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) collaborated on the framework, described as the first-ever cross-agency One Health plan.
The plan calls for pathogen surveillance, pandemic preparedness and vaccine development.
In its announcement, the CDC cited the threat of COVID-19, mpox, bird flu, Ebola and other diseases as examples of health threats that the One Health approach could help address.
Sayer Ji, founder of GreenMedInfo, told The Defender the framework does not address “upstream health determinants like poor diet, exposure to industrial toxicants and chronic stress” that adversely impact human health.
He also suggested that the crisis-oriented approach to One Health threatens democratic governance.
“By focusing on zoonotic diseases, the framework risks amplifying crisis-driven health governance, further entrenching centralized global systems that bypass democratic oversight,” Ji said.
Promoting vaccine development, biosecurity-driven health model
The One Health framework contains seven goals, including a focus on pathogen surveillance, pandemic preparedness, vaccine development and the operation and safety of biolabs.
The framework’s surveillance strategy includes tracking “the effects of social, economic, and environmental determinants of health and upstream drivers such as climate change and land-use on priority, endemic, emerging, and reemerging zoonotic diseases and other priority One Health issues.”
Pandemic preparedness and response efforts, including “research, development, and supply chain needs for new and targeted diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics, and mitigation strategies” are also contained within the new framework.
The framework also connects One Health to “environmental and social determinants of health … including climate change and environmental justice,” and proposes the integration of One Health “into curriculums across all relevant disciplines.”
For Ji, the framework’s goals are notable for what they do not include.
“The lack of focus on foundational strategies like regenerative agriculture, toxin reduction and lifestyle medicine demonstrates a troubling detachment from what truly promotes health at the individual and societal levels,” Ji said…
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