A provocative chronicle of how US public health has strayed from its liberal roots.
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The Covid-19 response was a crucible of politics and public health—a volatile combination that produced predictably bad results. As scientific expertise became entangled with political motivations, the public-health establishment found itself mired in political encampment.
It was, as Sandro Galea argues, a crisis of liberalism: a retreat from the principles of free speech, open debate, and the pursuit of knowledge through reasoned inquiry that should inform the work of public health.
Across fifty essays, Within Reason chronicles how public health became enmeshed in the insidious social trends that accelerated under Covid-19. Galea challenges this intellectual drift towards intolerance and absolutism while showing how similar regressions from reason undermined social progress during earlier eras. Within Reason builds an incisive case for a return to critical, open inquiry as a guiding principle for the future public health we want—and a future we must work to protect.
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Reviews
“Galea is a good companion in navigating readers through the political thickets in which public health now operates.” — Sir Michael Marmot, The Lancet
“Galea makes a powerful case that to carry the worst illiberal outcomes from the pandemic into the next crisis would be a devastating mistake.” — Pamela Paul, The New York Times Opinion
“With equal dose of empathy and examination, Sandro Galea challenges us to undertake a deep exercise of self-reflection: how our hard-won political beliefs may betray us in the hope for a greater good. Within Reason is critically relevant for each of us--and all of us.” — Julio Frenk, University of Miami
Powerful, erudite, and immersive--an essential treatise on our needed reformation in public health. — Alonzo Plough, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
“The COVID-19 pandemic created a ripple effect across many facets of society. The field of public health was not immune tothe effects of this transformative event. In Within Reason, Galea (dean, Boston Univ. School of Public Health) provides acollection of his own essays to explore how the pandemic impacted public health in the US, alongside other general issuesthe pandemic exposed. In addition to providing incisive analysis on this topic, Galea’s essays provide a powerful and thought-provoking look at the trends in public health that were accelerated due to the pandemic. Of importance is the trend away froma science-based approach to addressing public health issues and toward greater reliance on subjectivity. As a STEM-basedfield, public health is grounded in science and scientific methodology to inform researchers and policymakers in their decision-making processes. Galea argues for a return to critical thinking and inquiry as the backbone of public health and warns of aloss of trust in the future if researchers and policymakers fail to do so.” — K. R. Thompson, Missouri State University