Public Policy to Save Lives

“Until we come up with a vaccine, millions of lives hang in the balance, and policies will determine what happens,” said Benjamin Mason Meier, a professor in the Department of Public Policy at Carolina.

In times like these, strong public health policy can be the difference in life or death for a significant amount of people. 

Meier has spent his career studying the World Health Organization (WHO) and national policy responses to major outbreaks of diseases and has worked nonstop in 2020 on the global response to COVID-19. Specifically, Meier is analyzing the global policies being implemented to halt the spread of COVID-19. He wants to understand what powers governments have to prevent the disease and what policies are working in the disease response.

“Disease is a common threat to the entire world,” Meier said. “It requires collective action across all countries. And when [governments] ignore WHO policy guidance, we are all at risk, because the world is really only as strong as its weakest link.”

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