From dioxin to COVID-19: a One Health perspective on five decades of health crisis management—preparedness, panic, and progress

Health crises are often described as discrete events, yet their origins and consequences often span the boundaries among human health, animal health, environmental integrity, institutions, and public trust. This narrative review examines three historically distinct crises—the 1976 Seveso dioxin contamination, the BSE/prion disease crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic—as deliberately selected case studies of how scientific uncertainty, public anxiety, and crisis governance evolve across the human-animal-environment interface. This article adopts a narrative, case-based review and perspective format, rather than a systematic review. The personal perspective is not intended to supplant peer-reviewed evidence but instead offers a defined vantage point for interpreting recurring patterns in scientific uncertainty, public anxiety, risk communication, and institutional preparedness. The three crises differ in mechanism, temporality, and population impact, but they reveal recurring patterns: late recognition of cross-sector signals, incomplete integration of environmental, veterinary, clinical, and social information, fragmented communication, and difficulty making proportionate decisions before all evidence is available. Seveso illustrates the emergence of environmental biomonitoring and industrial-risk regulation; BSE and prion diseases demonstrate the importance of precautionary food-chain and neurological surveillance; COVID-19 shows both the power of rapid science and the consequences of weak coordination, inequity, misinformation, and fragile trust. The paper argues for a resilient, operational One Health model built around integrated surveillance, anticipatory risk assessment, trusted communication, equitable access to countermeasures, and long-term recovery, including mental-health support. The analysis is linked to contemporary international frameworks, including the One Health Joint Plan of Action, the amended International Health Regulations, the WHO Pandemic Agreement, and climate-health preparedness agendas [1–14].