"Well, what we can do is […] to organize data, to evaluate studies"-Self-images of public health academics in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study.

Background: Despite the significant role of scientific knowledge pertaining to public health, the discipline of public health remained outside the centre stage within the pandemic discourse. Against this background, we investigated the role of German public health academics during the pandemic in our study, focusing on their orientations and associated values.

Methods: We interviewed 21 public health scholars from Germany and collected 36 documents published by public health scientific societies.