Guru Madhavan’s op-ed at the Wall Street Journal is essentially a hymn to engineering:
Much of the conversation will come back to engineering, which historically has advanced public health far more than medical care has. Sanitation, water supply, electrification, refrigeration, highways, transportation safety, body scanning and mass production are a few examples. It’s easy to overlook how these technologies improve health outcomes, so consider one that’s an obvious part of many Americans’ lives today: the bandwidth necessary for telework.
I think he overstates his case somewhat but there’s resonance between his point and one I’ve been trying to make around here.
He mentions Margaret Hutchinson or, in the name by which I know of her, Margaret Hutchinson Rousseau. Alexander Fleming, a physician, discovered penicillin but Ms. Rousseau designed the first commercial penicillin production plant and she was a chemical engineer. We remember Fleming and have largely forgotten Ms. Rousseau and it’s just not because of her gender.
Other fields have figure prominently in the advances in public health as well. Louis Pasteur wasn’t a physician. He was a chemist but his work probably did as much as anyone’s to make the modern world and, especially, modern medicine possible. And he was fought by the medical establishment every step of the way as was his disciple, Joseph Lister, who was a surgeon.
My point here is not to dismiss physicians but to point out that they aren’t the only experts. Engineers, chemists, epidemiologists, statisticians, computer scientists, public policy experts and, yes, even politicians have their own expertise and all will be necessary if we are to deal with the challenges with which SARS-CoV-2 presents us.
He concludes:
Separated, specialized approaches to remake our health, economy and civics will guarantee the next breakdown. Let’s engage engineers and adapt industry practices for federally organized logistics to pave the way out of this pandemic. This is an essential service.
“Engineers, chemists, epidemiologists, statisticians, computer scientists, public policy experts and, yes, even politicians have their own expertise and all will be necessary if we are to deal with the challenges with which SARS-CoV-2 presents us.”
Perfect, and exactly. My only quibble would be that the politicians, at the end of the day, have to take all the input and make policy. Scary, I know, but they have to live or die by it. The “experts” aren’t really accountable. (Although Trump will fire your ass in a heartbeat, much to the media’s disapproval. It would help to have a credible and honest media to get the word out, but I’m dreaming now.)
Narrow reliance, just because its a virus, on the health care people is the road to hell, as we are witnessing right before our eyes. They love their moment in the sun. The people suffer.
This whole thing reminds me of Viet Nam, where the McNamara’s, Westmorlands, Rusks and their staffs were giving absolute crap advice to Kennedy and then Johnson. They had statistical models, don’t you rubes see? All the “experts” were wrong in every respect.
Death and misery ensued.
Redux……
That dovetails with a post of mine from earlier today. Why the insistence on a national policy? Is it
A. Because COVID-19 presents a national challenge
B. Because nationalizing it makes a good stick to beat over Trump’s head
C. Because there’s a preference for plans with grand scope over small ones
D. Etc.
and how do you disaggregate those reasons?
My own view is that there are aspects of the problem that better leadership from Washington could help but that what’s really necessary is better state and local leadership.
“My point here is not to dismiss physicians but to point out that they aren’t the only experts. Engineers, chemists, epidemiologists, statisticians, computer scientists, public policy experts and, yes, even politicians have their own expertise and all will be necessary if we are to deal with the challenges with which SARS-CoV-2 presents us.”
Who said otherwise? Strawman.
“https://www.zazzle.com/im_an_engineer_so_lets_assume_im_right_t_shirt-235182130007903353?rf=238840279726397180&tc=CjwKCAjwwMn1BRAUEiwAZ_jnEpJko0Uds3sq87W23lwGSj0IQhrQQ9HyYko0crg5dOEgB5N1h0y_nRoCKEQQAvD_BwE&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=us_shopping&utm_term=z235182130007903353&ca_chid=2001810&ca_source=gaw&ca_ace=&ca_nw=g&ca_dev=c&ca_pl=&ca_pos=&ca_cid=303811431747&ca_agid=59506841174&ca_caid=1600127682&ca_adid=303811431747&ca_kwt=&ca_mt=&ca_fid=&ca_tid=aud-606850126037:pla-579397191354&ca_lp=9006943&ca_li=&ca_devm=&ca_plt=&gclsrc=aw.ds&gclid=CjwKCAjwwMn1BRAUEiwAZ_jnEpJko0Uds3sq87W23lwGSj0IQhrQQ9HyYko0crg5dOEgB5N1h0y_nRoCKEQQAvD_BwE
“Why the insistence on a national policy?”
It would have been incredibly helpful if we had a test within a week or two like a lot of other first world countries did after obtaining the genome. Coordinating that testing should’ve been a federal responsibility. There needed to be a coordinated effort to move around PPE and increase production. We are still suffering and will continue to suffer from lack of federal effort in this area.
As far as reopening goes, I dont especially see the need for following a federal policy, but you do need some way to resolve differences between states. We are looking at some national drug shortages (my 10:00 meeting tomorrow) and that is something that is best addressed at the national level.
Steve
Query- Why did US air travel drop by about half before we had our first lockdown anywhere?
You did. In comments here the only two classes of people you have characterized as experts are 1) medical professionals and 2) epidemiologists.
Dave: Your comment on Pasteur and Lister reminded me of their forerunner, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, who discovered the principle of antisepsis and was pilloried for it and eventually sent to a madhouse for it where he died shortly thereafter of (you guessed it) septic shock from an untreated gangrenous wound that may have been caused by a beating by his guards.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis
And now for something completely different:
I subscribe to a number of popular science magazines, among them American Scientist. In every issue of AS is article on engineering by one Henry Petroski on topics ranging from the collapse of ‘Galloping Gertie’ the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, to the rise and fall of the slide rule as a common engineering tool. Usually entertaining and often thought provoking, I usually learn something whenever I read one.
https://www.americanscientist.org/author/henry_petroski
“You did. In comments here the only two classes of people you have characterized as experts are 1) medical professionals and 2) epidemiologists.”
Sigh. Ok, since I didn’t officially say it, there are hundreds, thousands of experts in many different fields. Many of those have a lot to offer with this Covid crisis. I will try to add in an expert in another field whenever i can though heaven knows I already ramble way too much. Also, I specifically cited the engineer (photonics) expert who helped us invent our UV sterilizer. I also said I was happy that Remdesivir actually helps so let me formally acknowledge the scientists, pharmacologists, marketing people, packaging people, janitors, chemists etc who made that possible.
I also disagree with Drew about politicians. They are experts at reading what the voters want, or they lose their job. Of course the problem is that they dont care what all of the voters want, just the ones who will vote in the primary.
Steve