If one of our two political parties was calling for everybody to lick doorknobs in areas where there have been coronavirus outbreaks, does arguing against that suddenly become partisan?
How about experts talk about what's in their experience and then it's the job of open-minded citizens to evaluate it, hopefully with good political leadership from elected officials? Now, it's fair to weigh different public health experts advice, and it's fair to also weigh what experts on economics have to say, so that we can evaluate pros and cons.
But this idea that experts shouldn't talk about healthcare systems that need to be changed in order to better meet the moment because talking about it is "politics"... Sorry, but I don't think it makes sense. You don't solve problems by running away from them. Experts can do more than say that we should wash our hands. In fact, we need them to!
All of the experts who are qualified to speak on this topic and everyone else writing about it should probably be focusing solely on the ongoing pandemic because there is literally nothing we can realistically do about the partisan stuff until that is resolved. Even if we all came together in a Kumbaya moment right now, between legilastive procedure, court challenges, bureaucratic inertia, and the chaos caused by said ongoing pandemic nothing productive would happen anyway. We won't bring pricing transparency and trust busting to healthcare or medicare for all or whatever anyone's ideology calls for until the dust has settled. Until that happens, it's just going to keep pushing us apart while the best opportunity since the 2000s to work past the partisan divide is staring us right in the face.
Paid sick leave (including caring for family members) is one item that can absolutely be dealt with in the moment during this ongoing pandemic, and MUST be dealt with to have an effective response. Same for how we deal with a lack of hospital beds. Same for the problem of financial support for those trying to self-quarantine. Same for issues related to how uninsured folks can get care. All of these things are politics.
There's legislation being discussed as we speak that may deal with many of these things, even if only on a temporary basis. It's simply false that the only things we can do, we must do as individuals and cannot do through government and with political leadership.
If you're making a narrower point about Medicare for All, I'd put that in a different category than most of these political recommendations simply because it would take years to implement. But that's different from arguing that we should ignore the merits of sound public health recommendations on the basis that some people have an ideological aversion to hearing it.
> Paid sick leave (including caring for family members) is one item that can absolutely be dealt with in the moment during this ongoing pandemic, and MUST be dealt with to have an effective response. Same for how we deal with a lack of hospital beds. Same for the problem of financial support for those trying to self-quarantine. Same for issues related to how uninsured folks can get care. All of these things are politics.
> There's legislation being discussed as we speak that may deal with many of these things, even if only on a temporary basis. It's simply false that the only things we can do, we must do as individuals and cannot do through government and with political leadership.
I'm arguing that any such attempt is doomed to failure if it so much as even stirs the beast of partisanship because of how far gone our civic discourse is. I believe most or all of the things you listed can be done quickly by the executive branches of local, state, and federal governments within the bounds of existing legislation. At this point, anything but the most bipartisan bills are impossible to do on a short time frame. The place to be is lobbying governors, political appointees that lead state and federal agencies, and civil servants on the ground. They have unilateral power to actually do something about the situation because emergency powers are very broad (Lincoln used his to suspend habeas corpus!) and justices will be even more hesitant to reign in executive power during a pandemic than whatever immigration state of emergency enabled the travel bans. That way, even judicial branch challenges will slow down partisan interference instead of obstructing the intended goal.
I hope I'm wrong and our legislature does pull it together under threat of an emergency. After all, if JFK getting shut down was enough to end the government shutdown, maybe a pandemic cratering the global economy is more than enough to bring us together, at least for a little bit. However if the goal is to get something done instead of arguing over what to do, I'd look to the executive branch, not legislative. The former is meant to do, the latter is meant to argue.
Edit: I wasn't trying to make a point with medicare for all, just trying to pick out some examples from different sides of the isle (single payer on the left, free market reforms on the right). I'll admit I don't know enough about either group of ideologies to predict which relevant bills would be bipartisan enough to pass quickly but based on how antagonistic partisans have become, I don't think it'd be much since we don't have much time for the normal pork barreling process to work.
I don't think public health experts should be taking partisan views of the public into consideration, or need to be experts on what can and cannot pass legislatively, personally. They should be objectively speaking from experience as health professionals and/or scientists.
This author has "a masters degree in public health from the University of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine as well as a background in infectious diseases and vaccine development." They are not literally at somebody's deathbed trying to prevent them from dying at this moment.
So really, here's the comparison: 647,000 Americans die from heart disease each year. Do I think doctors should be afraid to talk about obesity because it might turn people off listening to their other recommendations?
Honestly there are people who just do not care. Article has interesting content. But political stuff is just like ads, you ignore it, or go away if it becomes too annoying.
I am not even from US, we have universal healthcare, but it is even more broken than yours.
How about experts talk about what's in their experience and then it's the job of open-minded citizens to evaluate it, hopefully with good political leadership from elected officials? Now, it's fair to weigh different public health experts advice, and it's fair to also weigh what experts on economics have to say, so that we can evaluate pros and cons.
But this idea that experts shouldn't talk about healthcare systems that need to be changed in order to better meet the moment because talking about it is "politics"... Sorry, but I don't think it makes sense. You don't solve problems by running away from them. Experts can do more than say that we should wash our hands. In fact, we need them to!