Bitter Pill

PSYCHIATRIC patients literally running the asylum, university professors calling for socialism as a public-health measure, respected journals hurling accusations of “medical racism”: Sally Satel describes all this and more in her provocative and fascinating survey of the infiltration of the American health-care system by political correctness.

Satel, a psychiatrist at Yale University School of Medicine who works with inner-city drug addicts, first surveys the triumphs of the public-health movement since the 19th century, beginning with its victories on sanitation issues—things like clean water, indoor plumbing, and uncontaminated foods—and continuing with such measures as pasteurization, vaccinations, and antibiotics, which enabled rapid progress toward the eradication of infectious diseases. Public-health measures helped bring syphilis and tuberculosis under control, and—in the postwar period—improved the overall health of the populace through valuable campaigns to encourage people to quit smoking, wear seat belts, cut down on cholesterol, get more exercise, and monitor their blood pressure. These successes showed that a reformist impulse— combined with rigorous science—could produce tremendous advances in health, safety, and quality of life.

DS

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David Seidenwurm

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PSYCHIATRIC patients literally running the asylum, university professors calling for socialism as a public-health measure, respected journals hurling accusations of “medical racism”: Sally Satel describes all this and more in her provocative and fascinating survey of the infiltration of the American health-care system by political correctness.

Satel, a psychiatrist at Yale University School of Medicine who works with inner-city drug addicts, first surveys the triumphs of the public-health movement since the 19th century, beginning with its victories on sanitation issues—things like clean water, indoor plumbing, and uncontaminated foods—and continuing with such measures as pasteurization, vaccinations, and antibiotics, which enabled rapid progress toward the eradication of infectious diseases. Public-health measures helped bring syphilis and tuberculosis under control, and—in the postwar period—improved the overall health of the populace through valuable campaigns to encourage people to quit smoking, wear seat belts, cut down on cholesterol, get more exercise, and monitor their blood pressure. These successes showed that a reformist impulse— combined with rigorous science—could produce tremendous advances in health, safety, and quality of life.