Chelsea Dade
“If public health professionals are questioned and limited by politicians, who will apply science to protect the people?”
“It’s imperative that public health officials at the federal, state, and local levels—rather than politicians—have the lead role in communicating. Here’s what they need to do to lead during this COVID-19
pandemic.”
These are just a few tweets that I’ve seen on Twitter as of late regarding politicians, and public health experts’ response to them being “in their space.”
On a personal note, I simply wish people, both in public health and in other fields, would stop framing our current crisis as “politicians vs. public health experts.”
This dichotomous framing is what got us here in the first place, with an “illusion” that our work was above political agendas. Health is political, period. To debate it is unnecessary.
Not to mention that there are several policymakers, including Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Karen Bass, and Lauren Underwood, who are doing the necessary work to protect the health of their constituents and the nation, inside the politician arena. So you can imagine how tiresome it is when public health officials degrade policy professionals who are also doing public health work through a different method.
Since 2019, Representative Pressley (D-Mass.) has sponsored at least 4 bills concerning public health, including the Justice for Incarcerated Moms Act, Affordability is Access Act, Supporting Reproductive Healthcare in the US Act, and the Healthy Mommies Act. All have been referred to a Committee.
Representative Bass (D-Calif.) sponsored more than 10 bills about health, including the Physician Assistant Education Public Health Initiatives Act of 2017, Health IT Modernization for Underserved Communities Act of 2017, Health Insurance for Former Foster Youth Act. Many of her bills have received bipartisan and republican support.
In just a little over a year in Congress, Representative Underwood (D-Ill.) has cosponsored multiple health bills. And the majority of them have received support on both sides of the aisle. These include the Health Care Affordability Act of 2019, Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act of 2020, and the American Cures Act.
These phenomenal women don’t throw a tizzy because of challenging nature of politics: they simply get the job done.
Finally, if public health folks truly want to call out the politicians who are harming public health, you have to start from the top and name specific names, beginning with 45. But I haven’t seen this from many experts for “expected reasons.”
At the end of the day, as we’ve seen with the current direction of the CDC, its policy that controls public health, and not the other way around. Let’s all put on our big kid pants and work better, together.