And nothing illustrates that better than what happened during covid.
Back in July, 2023, Francis Collins, the former head of the NIH said:
“If you’re a public health person and you’re trying to make a decision, you have this very narrow view of what the right decision is. And that is something that will save a life; it doesn’t matter what else happens. So you attach infinite value to stopping the disease and saving a life. You attach zero value to whether this actually totally disrupts people’s lives, ruins the economy, and has many kids kept out of school in a way that they never quite recover from.”
Now I’m not sure what this says about the education that public health people are getting, but it’s not a rousing endorsement. If they aren’t taught to also see ‘big picture’ outcomes, especially when their input is creating public POLICY, then there’s a huge issue.
Or maybe the issue is that because of their title ‘public health’ then people who don’t know their specialty would think that they are more well-rounded than they are.
But that’s not how higher education works. Everything is siloed, segregated, and specialized.
That’s why academics make poor leaders, in general. They could have been reined in if alternate experts had been allowed to be heard to get a balanced policy.
Leaders have to have a wider viewpoint. And when they abrogate their responsibility to a particular narrow ideology, then what Collins describes happens.
Midwest Chick's Place 
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