[The urgency of Public Health in Physical Education training: lessons from COVID-19]

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated several controversies in the health area, particularly regarding social isolation measures, widely perceived as being one of the most effective strategies to reduce the spread of the virus. The Physical Education (PE) area became involved in these discussions, through contradictory positions of professionals, scientific societies and class entities regarding the reopening of fitness centers during the pandemic. We understand that some of these discussions revealed important weaknesses in relation to the approach to basic health knowledge, such as those related to epidemiology and public health measures. We seek in this essay, without the intention of exhausting the subject or performing an academic prescription, to support our position regarding the urgency of the approach of PE training within the field of Public Health, as well as presenting some proposals for this approach to effectively occur. We advocate training that favors a broader view of health, that enables professionals in the field to understand the potential relationship between PE and health, but at the same time recognize that physical activity is not a panacea and that human health has many others determinants and conditions.