On the virtue of exercising restraint, towards better advancing the long-term goals of public health.
I have long argued for a muscular public health. We should be proactive in using the levers at our disposal to shape a healthier world. This includes shaping public policy, working within institutions to reorient priorities towards health, and maintaining clear communications with the public. A muscular public health is one which engages, out of necessity, with power, using it to generate outcomes that we believe support a healthier world. Much of public health’s successes have happened because of such engagement. There is less smoking in the US, roads are less hazardous, regulations have been put in place creating safer neighborhoods and workplaces because reformers, including many in public health, acted, because they were not shy about making choices in the context of a given historical moment which advanced a healthier present and future. Insofar as action serves such a vision, it is to be embraced.
Read more here