.png){kind=logo}
Public health is a crucial field that focuses on improving the health and wellbeing of populations through various means, including disease prevention, health promotion, and health education. It is a multidisciplinary field that encompasses many different areas of study, including epidemiology, environmental health, and health services administration. In this list of public health trivia questions, we will cover a range of topics related to this important field.
The first set of questions will cover the basics of public health, including its history, key players, and important concepts. We will also explore the role of public health in addressing major health issues, such as infectious diseases, chronic diseases, and environmental health hazards. Additionally, we will delve into the various programs and initiatives that are aimed at improving public health, such as immunization programs, health promotion campaigns, and disease surveillance systems.
The second set of questions will focus on the challenges faced by public health professionals and the ways in which they work to overcome these challenges. These questions will cover topics such as funding, staffing, and political will, as well as the role of technology and innovation in advancing public health. Finally, we will explore the future of public health, including emerging trends, new technologies, and evolving approaches to addressing public health issues. Whether you're a public health professional, student, or just someone who is interested in this field, this list of public health trivia questions is sure to provide a fun and engaging way to learn more about this critical area of study.
1. While serving as Chief Medical Advisor to the President, what physician showed he was a Nationals fan by wearing a team-branded face mask while testifying before Congress in June 2020?
Answer: Dr. Anthony Fauci
2. What group, responsible for global medical well-being, was formed by the United Nations after World War II, combining the efforts of groups like the International Sanitary Conferences? Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, their three-letter acronym looks like a question.
Answer: World Health Organization
3. Established in 1871 and first held by John M. Woodworth, what federal government official is the leading spokesperson for public health matters in the United States?
Answer: Surgeon General
4. On the crest of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is a caduceus crossed with what nautical symbol?
Answer: Anchor
5. In February 2021, what governor was revealed to have lied about the number of COVID-19 deaths in New York nursing homes, not long after publishing a book subtitled "Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic?"
Answer: Andrew Cuomo
6. An epidemic of what Aedes mosquito-borne virus was reported in the Americas in 2015 and 2016, leading the CDC to issue an advisory on travel to certain areas in Central and South America?
Answer: Zika
7. HaMagen, Hebrew for "the shield," is a voluntary COVID-19 contact tracing app developed by the Ministry of Health of what nation?
Answer: Israel
8. In 1796, Edward Jenner created the modern vaccine for what disease, now considered eradicated?
Answer: Smallpox
9. "Prevalence" means the number of people who have a disease at a given point in time; what is the corresponding "I" term for the number of people who develop a disease over a period of time?
Answer: Incidence
10. Ervebo is the brand name of a vaccine for prevention of which viral hemorrhagic fever that affects humans and other primates?
Answer: Ebola
11. Which term describes a pathogen that spreads disease by infecting a host through close contact? (Hint: Also the title of a 2011 thriller starring Kate Winslet.)
Answer: Contagion
12. The flu shot is recommended by the WHO and CDC for yearly vaccination for nearly all people over the age of six months. What animal's eggs are often used to produce this vaccine each year?
Answer: Hen / Chicken
13. An attempt to improve public health by creating a cancer-curing virus instead wiped out most of mankind prior to the events of what 2007 post-apocalyptic Will Smith film?
Answer: I Am Legend
14. In December 2021, the Associate Health Minister of which Southern Hemisphere island nation confirmed that the government would introduce legislation that would ban anyone under the age of 14 from ever legally purchasing tobacco?
Answer: New Zealand
15. Growing a mustache in the eleventh month of the year to raise awareness of men's health issues such as prostate cancer is referred to by what eight-letter portmanteau word?
Answer: Movember
16. Which term represents the incidence or prevalence of a disease in a population (often heard alongside mortality), which refers to how many deaths have occurred in a population)?
Answer: Morbidity
17. After controversially having herself and her son Paul inoculated in 1768, Catherine the Great supported the idea of a widespread inoculation campaign throughout the Russian Empire against which disease?
Answer: Smallpox
18. Later referred to by its Harvard public health namesake as "that damn machine," the polio-fighting respirator known as the Drinker machine is better known by what more elemental nickname?
Answer: Iron lung
19. What life-saving medical screening, which uses ionizing radiation, can be traced back to 1913, when German surgeon Albert Salomon performed x-rays on 3,000 mastectomies?
Answer: Mammogram
20. In 1982, seven deaths in Chicago were attributed to an over-the-counter medication that had been laced with potassium cyanide. The murders spurred a public health investigation that brought about the “tamper-proof” packaging pill bottles have today. Which OTC pain reliever/fever-reducer was implicated in the poisonings?
Answer: Tylenol
21. The vaccine for measles prevention is often called the MMR vaccine because it also prevents the mumps and what other disease?
Answer: Rubella
22. Developed at MIT and at Boston Dynamics, Spot is a contact-free robot who helps with basic patient care and is mounted on a body with what guessable number of legs?
Answer: Four
23. The global awareness day for which liver condition that has several types (each with its own letter of the alphabet) is observed on July 28 each year?
Answer: Hepatitis
24. COVID-19 revived the near obsolete Drinker Tank, popular polio-era negative pressure ventilators better known by what metallic name?
Answer: Iron Lung
25. Which E-term means that efforts (like vaccination) to get rid of a disease have been so successful that it is no longer in the population and the methods no longer need to be used?
Answer: Eradication
26. What is a branch of civil and environmental engineering beginning with S that deals with issues affecting public health, such as safe drinking water and sewage disposal?
Answer: Sanitary Engineering
27. If the star of the "Mission: Impossible" movies takes a nasty spill, he might get a CT scan. The C stands for "Computed," and what does the T stand for?
Answer: Tomography
28. Blood-forming stem cells are important in cancer treatments because they form red blood cells, white blood cells, and what clotty things?
Answer: Platelets
29. What U.S. government agency, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, "leads public health efforts to advance the behavioral health of the nation," according to its website?
Answer: SAMHSA
30. Marketed as salves to poor posture and long-term health issues, Flexispot, Vivo, Fezibo, and SHW are four of the companies selling the most popular version of what piece of home office equipment?
Answer: Standing desk
31. What non-profit foundation, founded in 2000 by a tech giant and his now ex-wife, has funded a variety of public health initiatives around the world? Looking for two names, they are headquartered in Seattle, Washington.
Answer: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
32. According to an iconic 1989 political poster to raise awareness of the public health menace of AIDS, "Silence = " what?
Answer: Death
33. What British medical organization, abbreviated HTA, was founded in 1844 in response to reports of unsanitary conditions in major English cities by Sir Edwin Chadwick? It successfully campaigned for the passage of the Public Health Act of 1848.
Answer: Health Of Towns Association
34. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is known for holding what leadership position at the World Health Organization?
Answer: Director-General
35. What colorful two-word plague occurred in Afro-Eurasia from 1346 to 1353? The mass graves inspired people to take more preventative measures to prevent disease casualties.
Answer: Black Death
36. In 1701, Massachusetts passed laws for ship quarantine and patient isolation for the management of what disease, a now eradicated virus also known as variola?
Answer: Smallpox
37. Through the Public Health Service Act, the FDA is responsible for regulating things outside of food and drugs, such as what lights that are optically amplified by radiation?
Answer: Lasers
38. What American virologist created one of the earliest successful vaccines for polio, which was officially released in 1955? In 1963 he started his namesake Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, CA.
Answer: Jonas Salk
39. Named for its founder, what private research university in Baltimore, Maryland has the number-one ranked public health program in America, according to U.S. News?
Answer: Johns Hopkins
40. President Joe Biden's Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board included what surgeon and author of popular nonfiction books such as "The Checklist Manifesto," "Complications," and "Being Mortal?"
Answer: Atul Gawande
41. The Tdap vaccine protects against Tetanus, Whooping Cough (Pertussis), and what other disease?
Answer: Diphtheria
42. Among the airlines that quickly dropped mask mandates following a federal judge's ruling in April 2022 was what Atlanta-based carrier whose name is a Greek letter?
Answer: Delta
43. In 1993, an E. coli outbreak infected more than 700 people and killed four children in California, Idaho, Washington, and Nevada after they ate “so good it’s scary!” Monster Burgers from which chain restaurant?
Answer: Jack in the Box
44. On May 24, 2022, WHO announced that three African countries had eliminated trypanosomiasis, also known as "sleeping sickness," as a public health problem: Benin, Uganda, and what country whose capital is Kigali?
Answer: Rwanda
45. On July 18, 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the first outbreak of which viral hemorrhagic fever in Ghana?
Answer: Marburg virus
46. Which infectious disease paralyzed Franklin D. Roosevelt, likely after he picked it up in the water while on a trip to Campobello?
Answer: Polio
47. What "J" brand is the CDC's preferred vaccine for protection against monkeypox?
Answer: Jynneos
48. Most Americans didn’t learn the name Anthony Fauci until the COVID-19 pandemic, but in 2015, he played a major role in responding to cases of which hemorrhagic fever in the U.S.?
Answer: Ebola
49. On August 31, 2022, the FDA approved bivalent booster versions of Moderna's and Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccines that protect against the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of what COVID-19 variant?
Answer: Omicron
50. Hansen’s disease is more commonly known by which name that’s associated with the places (“colonies”) where people were once sent to live if they were infected with the illness?
Answer: Leprosy
51. After a $350 million gift from his family in 2014, Harvard's School of Public Health was renamed in honor of what philanthropic Hong Kong entrepreneur?
Answer: T.H. Chan
52. Americans can't get cute teensy boxes of Camels like in England because the Tobacco Control Act places what minimum number of cigarettes in a pack?
Answer: 20
53. Microbiologists were hired by Warner Bros. Pictures Canada to create a billboard made of growing bacteria in Petri dishes, which spelled the name of what 2011 pandemic-themed movie directed by Steven Soderbergh?
Answer: Contagion
54. Both the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross are headquartered in what Swiss city?
Answer: Geneva
55. Green biotechnology refers to biotechnology used in the environmental sector, whereas what color is used to describe biotechnology used in the medical and pharma field?
Answer: Red
56. Algerian born scientist Elias Zerhouni’s career has included being a vice-dean at Johns Hopkins, serving the Obama administration as a foreign science envoy, and ultimately heading R&D at Sanofi. However, his most prominent role was as the director of what Bethesda, MD federal agency responsible for biomedical and public health research?
Answer: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
57. On May 8, 1980, the World Health Organization officially declared that "the world and all its peoples have won freedom from" what deadly infectious disease?
Answer: Smallpox
58. Named after its inventors Albert Calmette and Camille Guérin, the Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine is primarily used to prevent which infectious disease?
Answer: Tuberculosis
59. What physician and public health expert became the 19th director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention starting on January 20, 2021?
Answer: Walensky
60. What Caribbean country has the highest adolescent pregnancy rate of all the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean? Public health data shows 20.5 percent of girls and young women ages 15 to 19 in this country become pregnant in their teens.
Answer: Dominican Republic
61. What health-related word evolved from a Middle English term describing the venom of a snake which came from a Latin word meaning "slimy liquid or poison?"
Answer: Virus
62. Created in 1946 by the Public Health Service Act, what agency, part of the Program Support Center of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, delivers job-oriented health support to governmental employees? This three letter “F” acronym also offers general stress advice.
Answer: Federal Occupational Health
63. What Scottish woman received the Order Of The British Empire in 1964 for her work in developing ante-natal care in Glasgow, Scotland, predating the creation of the NHS?
Answer: Nora Wattie
Water Cooler Trivia is well-equipped to provide you with exciting and engaging trivia quizzes.
So, how does it work?
Each week, our team will deliver original trivia quizzes straight to your inbox.
All you have to do is pick the categories.
You can leave the rest of the heavy lifting to us.
Take Water Cooler Trivia for a test run with our four-week free trial.
We do everything we can to ensure that Water Cooler Trivia's questions are appropriate, relevant, and accurate. Our database has tens of thousands of questions, so we don't always get it right. If you see a question that needs editing, we would love if you let us know here or email [email protected].
.png)