A Nowdemic of Summer Heat Deaths: Being prepared can prevent them.

In the summer of 2022 heat waves in Europe led to preventable deaths of 62,000 people. China can expect an average of 7000 deaths each year due to high summertime temperatures.  Three days of severe heatwaves have been torching Southern Australia this week from 27-29 Feb.

The Southern Hemisphere is baking right now and soon it will be the Northern Hemisphere’s turn.  Countries are going through planning for the “next pandemic” based on lessons learned from infectious epidemics.  Yes, there will be another infectious pandemic sometime in the future, but the nowdemic is stalking us now and most of this summer's deaths do not need to happen. This is a certain and imminent problem that very few local governments are preparing for.  One prong of prevention for the long term is mitigating climate change by greening up energy use. The second prong of prevention is getting our public health officials and city planners to do their jobs to partner with those at most risk to plan ways to survive this summer's heat waves.

 By learning from cities that have successfully planned to adapt to heat waves, communities can save lives. Cities like Phoenix, Paris, Miami, and Adelaide have shown us how to make and execute heat health action plans.  These cities, each in their own way, have rallied volunteers ready to help those lacking air conditioning to survive heat waves at designated cooling centres. Prepared cities know who is most at risk.  Volunteers call and knock on doors and walk their neighbours to safety during heat waves. Heat planning involves citizens and multiple branches of government.  The approach relies on the public health superpower of collective action.

 By involving communities, local authorities, and other stakeholders in the planning and implementation of heat health action plans, measures are tailored to the specific needs and vulnerabilities of each community.

 When I was a county health officer in the US, the heat health action plan I inherited was “Tell people to turn on their air conditioners in a heat wave or go to the library.” It was a bad and incomplete plan, because again and again vulnerable people don't respond if they are just told stuff by well-meaning officials.  Not everybody has AC, not everybody can pay the energy bills, and not enough people with co-morbidities realize that summer heat can kill them. Cities with good plans made these plans good by gathering their data on who needed protection from heat, then sharing that data broadly and building coalitions to co-create plans with the people instead of telling them what to do.

 The best public health plans for most health threats rely on data, transparency and sharing responsibility. The same public health approaches that address lethal heat wave nowdemics will help with mental health and chronic disease and  future infectious pandemics.

 The threat is this summer. The time for action is now. By learning from the examples of Phoenix, Paris, Miami, and Adelaide, and adopting a co-production approach, we can harness the power of community collaboration to save lives and build more resilient cities.