Science-based leadership in public health: decisions under pressure (from ESCAIDE 2025)

Topic outline

• Science-based leadership in public health: decisions under pressure

  Science-based leadership in public health: decisions under pressure

  This session was held as a part of ESCAIDE 2025, ECDC's annual conference on applied infectious disease epidemiology. 

  Want to know more?

  You can find more information about ESCAIDE here: https://www.escaide.eu, and about ECDC's work here: https://ecdc.europa.eu.
• Objectives

  Objectives

  After completing this activity, participants should be able to:

  • Explain how scientific evidence can contribute effectively to decision‑making when uncertainty, contested values, high stakes and urgency are present.
  • Identify what types of scientific and technical information should be communicated to decision‑makers, and why.
  • Describe how decision‑makers integrate scientific and technical information alongside political, social and economic considerations.
• Watch the session

  Watch the session

  
  
• Summary of the content

  Summary of the content

  Summary of the content

  This presentation is part of a plenary session held at ESCAIDE 2025, titled ‘Science-based leadership in public health: decisions under pressure’. Science-based public health leadership during infectious disease emergencies involves complex decision-making where scientific knowledge provides important but incomplete answers. Leaders must make urgent decisions to protect population health when evidence is emerging, uncertain, or disputed, while managing competing demands, cultural values, and limited resources. In an era of populism and misinformation, promoting evidence-based policy requires balancing scientific accuracy with governance realities.

  This session features a moderated debate with panellists from healthcare, policymaking, and public health backgrounds. Following brief opening reflections based on personal experiences, the discussion will explore key challenges at the intersection of science, policy, and leadership. The debate will address decision-making during health emergencies, including setting priorities under pressure and maintaining evidence-based approaches when scientific facts compete with political and social pressures for public attention and trust.

  Chairs (learn more about the chairs on the ESCAIDE website)

  • Bruno Ciancio  – Head of Unit Directly transmitted and Vaccine-preventable Diseases, ECDC, Sweden
  • Jacobo Mendioroz Peña – Sub-director General, Public Health Agency of Catalonia, Spain

  
  

  Speakers (learn more about the speakers on the ESCAIDE website)

  • Eirini Agapidaki – Alternate Minister of Health, Ministry of Health, Greece
  • Karin Maria Nygård – Special advisor, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Norway
  • Tanja Kuchenmüller – Unit Head Science for Policy, WHO, Switzerland
  • Alemka Markotić – Head of the Department of Urogenital Infections, University Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Croatia
• Additional resources

  Additional resources
  • URLCheck other ESCAIDE materials on Learning Portal
• Contacts

  Contacts

  For more information about ESCAIDE, please see www.escaide.eu, or contact the ESCAIDE team at escaide.conference@ecdc.europa.eu. 

  If you have questions regarding other training initiatives please contact: courses@ecdc.europa.eu.

  If you have technical issues please contact the ECDC Service Desk at servicedesk@ecdc.europa.eu.

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