On 29 March 2020, the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) has published a statement on the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak emergency in the International Journal of Public Health. As a member of the ASPHER COVID-19 Taskforce, Laurent Chambaud, Dean of EHESP French School of Public Health, has signed this statement which calls all countries to strengthen the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), and to recognize the key role of public health in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
[…] ASPHER, as Europe’s representative organisation for Schools of Public Health, calls on all countries to strengthen the role and resources available to the WHO and to align with WHO policies. ASPHER supports sustaining and strengthening the ECDC mandate for international action. ASPHER calls on Europe’s governing bodies, the European Commission and individual countries: to recognize the specific expertise of public health professionals involving them in decision-making to effectively coordinate European and in-country action; to invest adequate funding and resources in health systems, essential public health operations, planning and preparedness; and to include health in all policies…