I definitely agree with Annalisa’s post that these chapters, just as our previous readings, are disturbing. To me, learning about diseases in general, even from a strictly science perspective is scary enough. It makes me feel vulnerable. However, learning about diseases and public health in relation to politics and social activities is even scarier. Not only do I realize how easily we can all be killed, but also I realize how sometimes there isn’t really anything we can do to prevent certain diseases from affecting us. We can’t always control what we’re exposed to. Additionally, I like to believe that we can trust our doctors and scientists to, in a sense, just take care of everything. However, maybe we should be doubting these individuals, and also realize that they are not the only ones needed to protect us from diseases.
“Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing else but medicine on a large scale. Medicine, as a social science… has the obligation to point out problems and to attempt their theoretical solution: the politician…must find the means for their actual solutions”- Virchow (a physician in Germany in the 1800s). Virchow, however, also had really rational ideas, to the point where the Prussian government removed him from his position to investigate a disease.
We never really know what mistakes the people with authority may make. Hopefully, we can learn from the past to be more speculative, and make sure that we don’t get fixated on theories so quickly, or at all.
