9 Questions for Public Health Expert Dr. Leana Wen

The CNN medical analyst and author of the new book Lifelines spoke with AARP about the flaws the pandemic exposed in our health care system and how to focus on what matters most.

Q: What inspired you to become a medical doctor?

A: I had asthma as a child and went to the doctor a lot. I understood the feeling of being frightened when you can't breathe and how much doctors and nurses provided relief. When I was about 10 years old, a boy who lived next to us died in front of me from an asthma attack. The boy's grandmother was too afraid to call for help because she was an undocumented immigrant. I knew from an early age that I wanted to be a doctor in the ER [and never] have to turn someone away because of their inability to pay or their immigration status or anything else.

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Q: You became your mother's medical advocate while in medical school. What did that teach you?

My mother was told by her doctor that her symptoms were attributed to depression. She knew that didn't make sense because she was so short of breath that she couldn't walk up the stairs. But she didn't want to speak up. Eventually, she sought a second opinion and was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. I spent a lot of time after that trying to understand that disconnect and how to improve hospitals and make patients better advocates for themselves.

Q: You became Baltimore's health commissioner. What got you interested in public health?

My experiences in the ER. I saw so many patients there that I knew I couldn't help because of underlying problems. I remember one woman coming in over and over again, requesting treatment for drug addiction. Everybody knew that the best we could do was find a treatment program for her in a few weeks. We found her a program that started a few weeks later. But later that day she overdosed, and we were unable to resuscitate her. I had so many experiences like that in the ER. We were doing our best to provide treatment. But, ultimately, what was going to save our patients’ lives was not medical tools, but social supports that weren't there.

Q: Why do you think public health is so undervalued in this country?

A: Public health works because it's invisible. It's very hard to explain the value of something that you can't see. If you prevent children from getting lead poisoning, there's no face of someone with lead poisoning because you've prevented it from happening. As a result, public health becomes the first item on the chopping block. COVID-19 is a stark example of what happens when there's chronic neglect of — and underinvestment in — public health.