Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Despite remarkable successes, Galea argues, public health succumbed to a disturbing strain of illiberalism during the pandemic. . . .Galea makes a powerful case that to carry the worst illiberal outcomes from the pandemic into the next crisis would be a devastating mistake." -- Pamela Paul * The New York Times *
"Galea is a good companion in navigating readers through the political thickets in which public health now operates. [
Within Reason] is not about COVID-19, but the pandemic was an enormous stress test of public health and thrust public health into the center of politics and media attention." * The Lancet *
“Powerful, erudite, and immersive—an essential treatise on our needed reformation in public health.” -- Alonzo Plough | Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
“With equal dose of empathy and examination, Sandro Galea challenges us to undertake a deep exercise of self-reflection: how our hard-won political beliefs may betray us in the hope for a greater good.
Within Reason is critically relevant for each of us—and all of us.” -- Julio Frenk | University of Miami
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Foundations
What Stories Will We Tell about COVID-19?
Liberty and Health?
Fear
The Economics of Illiberalism
How to Get Healthier and Wealthier during a Crisis
Decision-Making in an Age of Social Media
Borders in an Age of Pandemics
UFOs, COVID-19, and the Return of Radical Uncertainty
Why Do We Tell the Stories We Tell?
The History of Soccer, the Butterfly Effect, and Public Health
The Ongoing Challenge of Race
Not in the Name of Public Health
Health and the Opportunity to Think Freely
Thinking in Groups or Thinking for Ourselves: In Praise of Iconoclasm
The Challenge of Slow-Burning Threats
The Ineluctable Role of the Faceless Bureaucrat
Sectarianism and the Public’s Health
Health in an Era of Resurgent Great Power Conflict
“For Our Own Good”
Heresies
Why Health?
The Spherical Cow Problem
Public Health and the Temptations of Power
Not Our Place
The Radical Importance of Acknowledging Progress
Who’s Left?
Too Far, or Not Far Enough?
A Case against Moralism in Public Health
Resisting the Allure of Moral Grandstanding
Resisting Our Suburban Impulses
Checking Our Blind Spots
We Need to Talk about Class
Public Health and Tradition
My Bias in Favor of Living
Hopes
Mercy and Our Present Moment
A Case for Good Faith Argument
“One Does Have Joys”
A Playbook for Balancing the Moral and Empirical Cases for Health
The False Choice of Diversity and Inclusion versus the Pursuit of Excellence
Our Place in the Natural Order of Things
What Do We Want from Our Political System?
The Role of Experts and Community Voices Both
The Aesthetics of a Healthier World
Intellectual Cross-Training toward a Healthier World
The Incredible Potential of New Technology
The Consent of the Governed
Spending Smarter
A Populist Public Health
In Praise of Objective Reality
The Next Generation: The Kids Are (Probably) All Right
In Conclusion
Toward a Liberal Public Health
Acknowledgments
Index
