Public Health Has Become An Ideological Monoculture that is elitist and opaque

“…Harold Pollack is a distinguished professor of public health at the University of Chicago and self- described “emphatic liberal Democrat.” In an August 2021 Politico op-ed, Pollack writes that COVID-19 vaccination efforts are lagging in part because “the people spreading the message about the Covid vaccine”—that is, public health professionals—“don’t look or sound much like the people who need to heed this message.” Pollack implied that vaccine hesitancy is largely a phenomenon among political conservatives. As such, he decried the lack of conservatives in schools of public health, leading to “palpable absolutism and lazy groupthink among progressives.”…

…The problem is not merely one of ideology, but also of elitism. It appears that during the pandemic, public officials at times withheld information from the public, disseminated false information, and suppressed dissenting voices…

…Public health officials seem to discount the goals of ordinary Americans that may compete with goals of public health. For example, whereas reducing the spread of COVID-19 is good, mitigation measures involve some bad things: e.g., school closures, business closures and bankruptcies, damage to mental health, and loss of community. Done properly, lawmakers and regulators must consider both costs and benefits when making policy…”