Bradford Hill Seminar – The politics of epidemiology & public health in the UK - Prof Danny Dorling

On 15th October 2025 Professor Danny Dorling delivered a Bradford Hill Seminar on 'The politics of epidemiology and public health in the UK'.

About this talk
We like to present epidemiology as politically neutral, and public health as the science of supporting the health of the population as a whole. This is not necessarily so.

There are always choices to be made. Different academic disciplines have implicit biases and underlying beliefs, which can change over time and differ greatly between contexts. Some of the most obvious examples are between people who prefer individualistic explanations and those who see this as victim blaming.

A lack of attention to certain topics is another form of political bias. Why, for instance, are we in the UK not more concerned about how many people choose and can afford to use private health care and dentistry? Why are we not talking about how life expectancy fell in the UK after 2014? And, to what extent is our epidemiology and public health in the UK in the 2020s a reflection of UK politics?

About Professor Dorling
Danny Dorling works at the University of Oxford. His most recent three books are: “Seven Children”, “Peak Injustice”, and “The Next Crisis”. He works with road crash charity RoadPeace, Heeley City Farm in Sheffield, and the educational campaign group Comprehensive Future

About the Bradford Hill seminars
The Bradford Hill seminar series is the principal series of The Cambridge Population Health Sciences Partnership, in collaboration with the PHG Foundation. This comprises the Departments of Public Health & Primary Care, MRC Biostatistics Unit and MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, bringing together a multi-disciplinary partnership of academics and public health professionals. The Bradford Hill seminar programme of internationally recognised speakers covers topics of broad interest to our public health research community. It aims to transcend as well as connect the activities of our individual partners.

All are welcome at our Bradford Hill seminars.