Thread by @ahc

I follow, you presumably won't be surprised to learn, a very wide range of well-informed public health folks. They vary, however, in how "insider" they are institutionally.

And I can't help but notice that though I consider all of them super smart, as a rule the more "insider," the slower they've been to definitively say what accumulating evidence clearly shows is true (e.g., most egregiously, risks of outdoor transmission).

I think this reflects a complicated reality of being close to power. There are a range of factors that range from cynical to sympathetic, but all of which militate against forthrightness and honesty:

1/ You are afraid of retaliation if you criticize those currently at the "top" of your field. (cynical but certainly sometimes true)

2/ You hope to one day be where they are, and you need their imprimatur, or at least nihil obstat, to eventually be in that spot.

3/ You feel more empathy for the political pressures (not relating to the facts of the matter) that those at the "top" of your field are facing, and so you hold back on offering anything that would complicate their political situation. (I think this is the biggest consideration.)

All these are totally understandable, but they also mean that some of the brightest people end up, at least in areas like public health, being quite useless to, well, public health.

And it also means that those at the "top" are anything but, if the "top" means those who are making the most decisive contribution to actually communicating the full truth about a matter in ways that can shape healthy behavior.

TL;DR proximity to power often limits your ability to speak truth quickly, decisively, and publicly. It's the price of admission.

All of which suggests why God in the OT seems to think a people can survive just fine without a king (if they walk in the ways of YHWH) . . . but never even hints that they could survive without prophets.

Adding this great piece as a case study. It's a reminder that the dynamics I'm describing above are *not* always a matter of "corruption" or coverups, but simply the dynamics of power. "Prominent public health personalities rushed to defend the WHO." wired.com/story/the-teen…