A prescription for saving democracy: Is public health key to beating back fascism?
SalonThe California recall had an important lesson for Democrats, on at least two levels: First, that protecting public health is a politically potent platform, as California Gov. In tune with this long-term potential, as reported by NPR the previous week, more than 200 medical journals issued an unprecedented joint statement warning that the rapidly warming climate is the "greatest threat" to global public health, even in the midst of the COVID pandemic. But in the face of the COVID pandemic, climate change and the resurgent fascist threat, a more prominent role for the public health perspective, clearly and consistently articulated, is precisely what we need. What's more, our basic foundation of local public health agencies is subject to periodic boom and bust cycles of support and defunding, according to a report by the AP and Kaiser Health News. So we've got a lot of work to do just getting the basics of public health right — and some version of Medicare for All would go a long way toward doing that.
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Pandemic backlash jeopardizes public health powers, leaders
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