"Over the past year, I've noticed a pattern among some of my colleagues in public health, biomedical research, and the university settings in which I work. It's a strange, reflexive tic: Faced with bad-faith criticism from malign actors, we shrink back, saying, "Oh, it's not you. It's me," and walk onto their terrain with accommodation in our hearts. Some may think that, faced with the full fury of the far right, some kind of retreat is the only option."
"But walking further and further into the mouth of the Leviathan only serves to make you dinner for a very large fish. In public health, the reigning trope is that over the past five years, we have lost the trust of ordinary Americans, largely coinciding with the response to the Covid pandemic. It's an uncritical analysis that we eat up like candy-"
Some public health, biomedical research, and university professionals reflexively accommodate bad-faith criticism, apologizing and ceding ground to hostile actors. Retreating in response to far-right attacks empowers those actors and harms institutional positioning. The prevailing narrative claims public health lost ordinary Americans' trust during the Covid response, driving calls to rebuild trust. Poll evidence suggests retrospective public support for mitigation measures remained substantial, with Democrats rated more positively than Republicans on pandemic handling and personal health. School closures were seen by many as largely necessary at the time. Although pandemic experiences damaged routine vaccine confidence, widespread opposition to anti-vaccine sentiment remains.
Read at The Nation
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