How Do You Untangle Public Health From Politics? Very Carefully, and Not Easily

All you need to do to be in control of public health — and life and death decisions — is to win a popularity contest.

For four years, he remained publicly silent on HIV. That silence — and the federal lack of a response to the epidemic — cost lives and has affected generations.

Politics control public health in the United States of America. Elected officials have a final say over most public health decisions…