Today, much of the “public health” field is concerned with empowering government to dictate an ever-expanding array of individual behavior, including what people can eat, drink, read, think, drive, and how to protect yourself and your family. The bulk of the project is fundamentally opposed to individual liberty.
It appears the editors of The Atlantic are finally willing to entertain an idea that has long been obvious to gun rights supporters. In this case, it’s that the field of “public health” has devolved from a scientific pursuit into a left-wing political project.
On July 7, the lofty periodical published an item titled “How Public Health Discredited Itself,” by John Tierney. Using the field’s woeful, and contradictory, response to the COVID pandemic as a jumping-off point, the former Boston College professor explained how the field had gone astray well before 2020.
Referring to public health, Tierney noted,
A noble profession has been corrupted by politics. This became obvious during the pandemic, but the politicization of the discipline has been going on for half a century. The modern field has redefined the very meaning of public health, and in the process, it has made so many mistakes that it has itself become a hazard to Americans’ health.
The professor explained how public health was initially “focused on threats that were genuinely public” and required collective action. This included reducing the spread of communicable diseases like smallpox and cholera through public education campaigns and the construction of sanitation infrastructure.
However, as Tierney pointed out, “the distinction between public and personal health began disappearing in the 1960s,” leading the field into dictating all manner of personal and political conduct. Detailing the shift, he noted,
