Health promotion and care : approaches and trends

Abstract

Throughout the history and even prehistory of humankind, efforts have been made to improve health, including the treatment and cure of disease and wounds. These efforts have led to a variety of beliefs and approaches to healthcare, involving a variety of different paradigms. If we examine a representative sampling of these approaches, we can see radical differences in theory and practice. Perhaps inevitably, practitioners of one school of thought have disagreed—sometimes in the extreme—with each other. Scientists, and especially their cheerleaders, have often been guilty of worshiping their own limited views of “science”, an attitude that harms both science and society. Remembering the history of healthcare gives us some background against which to view the current social antipathy among groups having different opinions concerning the Covid pandemic. Greater understanding coupled with humility offers us an opportunity to end the antipathy.