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To the contrary. I grew up in public health and think it's tremendously important. The old school public health people didn't "bring their whole selves to work.
by rayiner 2y ago
To the contrary. I grew up in public health and think it's tremendously important. The old school public health people didn't "bring their whole selves to work." If you're working in a Bangladeshi village and an old Muslim man wants a male doctor instead of a female doctor, you go and find a male doctor. The public health field has always been full of liberals, that was never the problem. But the new generation is full of evangelicals,[1] and that makes it impossible for them to do the job. And if they can't do what's required for the job, they need to be replaced with people who can--for the good of the field itself.
[1] I would say the same thing about evangelicals on the other side of the aisle. You cannot be in Bangladesh working in public health while being an evangelical Christian. You will never gain people's trust, and without that you cannot do the job.
- tptacek 2y agoI didn't say a single thing about public health professionals.
- rayiner 2y agoWe are in the middle of a thread about public health professionals. Which "scientists and administrators" do you think I'm talking about?
- tptacek 2y agoYou said "scientists" and "health administrators". I know what a "scientist" is and I know what a "health administrator" is. My son is working out how tenuous his biochem PhD offers are right now, which is pretty nerve-wracking. For obvious reasons, I take you to be saying he should be "getting wiped out". Fine, just so we're clear what you're saying.
- rayiner 2y agoLook, this is a solved problem. When my dad was developing vaccine and maternal health programs in Bangladesh, he knew there would be no faster way to destroy a vaccine program than by linking it to advocacy in favor of the country’s hindu minority. The norm against that must be reestablished. So the people who did things like apply different hiring standards to medical students based on race, or proposed triaging care based on race, must go. Not because of their ideology—you can be a communist in public health as long as you compartmentalize—but because they hurt their institutions’ ability to do the job. And the people who sat by while that happened—who didn’t speak up to defend institutional values over progressive ones—need to learn some harsh lessons so that doesn’t happen again. I like you personally and hope your kid is part of rebuilding our public health institutions into what they once were.
- tptacek 2y agoI don't know what this has to do with what you said upthread but if this is a roundabout way of telling my son you're not happy he has to worry about whether his PhD offers are all going to be rescinded, I'll let him know you didn't really mean him when you talked about wiping people out.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- rayiner 2y agoTL;DR the people with "In this house we believe..." signs on their lawns have shredded the credibility of shared institutions by using those institutions as platforms for advancing their ideology on unrelated social and political issues. To restore faith in our institutions we will need to reboot them. Obviously there will be consequences, especially for PMCs and their children. I hope the ones I know personally escape those consequences. Just as I assume they weren't intending for anyone they know personally to e.g. have their small towns flooded with illegal immigrants.
- tptacek 2y agoOh, you don't know him personally, so I'll update him: you're good with his PhD program offers being withdrawn, because natural products biochemistry work is a small price to pay for exacting revenge on unrelated people who said some stupid shit back in 2020. Good note, Rayiner.
- fzeroracer 2y ago> Not because of their ideology—you can be a communist in public health as long as you compartmentalize Seemingly this is something you don't actually agree with, considering as I've mentioned to you multiple times now of the Trump admin kicking out and discriminating against transgender individuals in the military despite having nothing to do with anything else. Other than that you've been just continually justifying petty revenge for increasingly insane reasons.