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To the Editor:22fun

Re “How to Talk About Fluoride, Vaccines and Raw Milk,” by Emily Oster (Opinion guest essay, Nov. 17), suggesting that public health officials are themselves to blame for the decrease in public trust:

As a physician and public health researcher, I could not disagree more with Ms. Oster’s analysis.

The so-called crisis in confidence in public health advice came about for exactly two reasons: the once-in-a-century explosion of a new disease that no one had a clear idea how to deal with, and (much more important) the presidency of a man who intentionally sows doubt to divide people and increase his power.

It takes an enormous amount of work to rise high in the ranks of public health. People who do so are constantly vetted and “kept honest” by others in the field, and these jobs do not pay very well. There is absolutely no reason for someone to aspire to such a position except care for the well-being of their fellow citizens.

It follows that public health officials deserve the benefit — the large benefit — of the doubt. They enjoyed this for pretty much the entire 20th century, when life span and level of health expanded continuously.

This is not saying “just let the experts decide.” It’s saying that if you want to question the experts, you need have more than just an ax to grind. You need to inform yourself on the (often very complicated) issues and come with more than “something I read on the internet” or tendentious challenges made for no purpose but to muddy the waters and sow doubt.

Restoring the public’s belief in the health advice of experts is not a question of “messaging.” It is a question of remembering the progress we made when we trusted the good will of our public servants, understanding how Donald Trump has sabotaged this trust as a means to divide and conquer, and rejecting his malign influence.

Wesley H. ClarkMiddlebury, Vt.

To the Editor:

As a pediatrician and researcher specializing in vaccine communication, I want to expand on a critical point in Emily Oster’s essay. Amid eroding trust in public health and a surge of misinformation, the author observes that the response from public health leaders often seems to be to yell the same thing, only more loudly, which isn’t working.

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