Sandro Galea sat down with the hosts of Why Should I Trust You? — Brinda Adhikari, Tom Johnson, and Maggie Bartlett — to make the case for a public health that widens its tent rather than shrinks it. Galea, founding dean of the Bursky School of Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis, leads the first major school of public health to open in the United States after the pandemic. The conversation ranged from fractured public trust to the growing perception that the field has become partisan. Galea argued that engaging across the divide means listening to all sides and welcoming disagreement, without compromising science or principles and without indulging bad-faith actors. He closed on the question hanging over the moment: with funding slashed, vaccine policy in turmoil, and Medicaid facing deep cuts, is this the time for public health to reach across the divide — or to hold the line and fight?
"It's Time to Radically Engage": A Conversation with Dr. Sandro Galea