Your Number One Public Health Message: What Would It Be?

A recent post in the Public Health Lounge LinkedIn group sparked a valuable discussion among public health professionals. He posed the following question:

“Think about a public health message you would shout out to the masses… A message you feel everyone should know, but also feel in their bones.”

Public health professionals are often required to manage a wide range of priorities: prevention, policy, equity, engagement, funding, data, and the ongoing challenge of shaping systems while remaining meaningfully connected to communities. This made it particularly interesting to see what message people would choose to prioritise if given just one opportunity to communicate something clearly and publicly.

Below are some of the responses:

• “Health is a basic human right, don't let anyone take it away from you!”

• “Do something kind. For someone else. Today.”

• “Poverty kills.”

• “Health equity isn’t charity. It’s justice.”

• “You don’t notice public health — until it’s gone.”

• “Your zip code predicts your health more than your genes or choices do. Work together to make the places you live, work, and play healthier.”

• “Stop using antibiotics too much — bacteria has the ability to wipe humanity out!”

• “Strong Public Health. Stronger Nation.”

• “Never stop learning. Trust science. Prevent before you treat.”

• “DYK sneeze particles can travel as far as your next exit? Public health impacts all of us!”

• “Make 2 mins a day to do something active.”

There are many more responses beyond the ones listed here, and each one offers a unique lens into the principles, values, and emotions that drive public health practice. It is well worth taking a moment to read the full thread and reflect. You can view the original post here:
🔗 Public Health Lounge post

My contribution is:
“Health isn’t just a clinic thing. It’s an everywhere thing.”

It is just a simple reminder that health is not confined to hospitals or GP surgeries. It is shaped in everyday environments: homes, schools, streets, workplaces, community spaces, and through policies, relationships, and access to resources. Public health is not a single intervention. It is the fabric that holds wellbeing together.

Conversations like this are valuable across the public health community. They strip away complexity and refocus attention on the core purpose of the work. Behind every policy, dataset, and intervention are real people and communities whose lives are shaped by social, economic, and environmental conditions. Public health is about creating the conditions for people to live healthier, longer, and more dignified lives. Condensing that into a single message requires clarity of thought and a strong grasp of what truly drives population wellbeing. In an often crowded and fast-moving information space, opportunities to reflect on what matters is essential. So the question remains: What is the one public health message you would share with the world?