Commentary|Podcasts|June 16, 2026

When Politics Fails Public Health, Communities Pay the Price

Author(s)Maggie L. Shaw, John Parkinson, Perry N. Halkitis, PhD, MS, MPH

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Perry Halkitis, PhD, MS, MPH, draws on decades of epidemic response to argue for evidence-based policy, public trust, and equitable care delivery.

Decades of epidemic response, from the AIDS crisis to COVID-19, have taught Perry N. Halkitis, PhD, MS, MPH, that when political will is absent, people die, and when communities are ignored, trust erodes in ways that take generations to rebuild.

Halkitis, the dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health and founder of the Center for Health, Identity, Behavior & Prevention Studies, is a public health leader who has spent his career at the intersection of science, community, and policy. After 2 decades at New York University and a lifetime studying how disease, behavior, and politics collide, he brings both rigorous research and deeply personal experience to some of the most urgent questions in public health today.

He has watched epidemics emerge, witnessed governments fail to respond, and seen communities mobilize when institutions would not. From the early days of the AIDS crisis to COVID-19, Ebola, and beyond, Halkitis has drawn consistent lessons about what makes public health succeed and what causes it to collapse. Halkitis knows this not just as a scholar but as someone who has lived it, from the streets of New York City during one of the darkest chapters in modern medical history to the halls of academia, where he now trains the next generation of public health professionals.

On this episode of Managed Care Cast, marking a collaboration between The American Journal of Managed Care^® and ContagionLive^®, Halkitis argues for rebuilding public trust through honest communication and genuine community engagement, rethinking how care is delivered to vulnerable populations, and demanding that political leaders base decisions on evidence rather than ideology. He makes the case for embedding public health professionals inside the communities they serve, using trusted messengers to reach people where they are, and acknowledging past mistakes rather than defending them.

His message is urgent, hard-earned, and aimed at anyone who believes that science and compassion should guide the decisions that shape our collective health.