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My answer is to take a page from Bill Foege’s playbook. Bill cites three tenets to his personal philosophy as it applies to public health, which we would all do well to follow: First, as confusing and bewildering as things may seem, we live in a cause-and-effect world. So somewhere, the answers are out there. Second, know the truth—and the first step to knowing the truth is wanting to know the truth, rather than any alternative that seems more satisfying or closer to your own worldview. Third, not one of us does anything worthwhile on our own.
I would add one more: We’re all in this together, whether we like it or not.
Like Abraham Lincoln, I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts. —GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR, 1944
If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito. —DALAI LAMA
That’s the challenge of proactive public health practice. If you prevent something from happening because of your actions, you’ll always be second-guessed as to whether the action was necessary. On the other hand, if you don’t act on the information you have and an outbreak occurs, you will be burned at the stake by the media, elected officials, and even your colleagues. I have always taken the position as a public health professional that I’d rather have to answer for something I did than for something I didn’t do.
The pursuit of public health almost always involves the study of unintended consequences.
