Health Affairs June 28, 2024
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Most people in public health don’t see themselves as authoritarians. The job of public health is to uplift communities and advocate for a healthier world. Some consider public health a calling, a line of work bound by values like humility, truth, and compassion. But professor Sandro Galea, who considers himself a public health insider, no longer recognizes the field he’s studied for most of his professional life.
His self-proclaimed personal identity crisis was hastened by a real crisis: the COVID-19 pandemic. In many ways, he says, COVID was public health’s...