“A perpetually anxious society is a vulnerable one,” writes Jeneen Interlandi in a new essay examining how the United States, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, seems trapped in an era of public health crises — from infectious disease outbreaks to loneliness and parental stress. In her essay, Interlandi examines why America’s public health system often relies on generating outrage to achieve its goals, and how it decides which issues to prioritize. Unlike an epidemic or a public health emergency, there are no formal criteria for declaring a crisis — it’s a more subjective choice. And as Interlandi argues, it’s a choice frequently made by a resource-starved public health system, though not without risks. Take maternal mortality: While the United States has one of the highest maternal mortality rates among developed countries, a recent, much-publicized rise appears largely attributable to changes in how deaths are tracked. Improvements are needed, but Interlandi points out that it’s still extraordinarily safe to give birth in the United States. “The racial gap in maternal deaths is significant and shameful, and merits every effort to close it,” she writes. Yet in 2022, “less than one-half of one-tenth of 1 percent” of Black women who became mothers or expecting mothers died from maternal causes. Talk of a crisis could very well be raising undue fear and stress for expecting mothers. She cites many other examples of problems health officials have called crises, some with success, and others with unintended consequences. Crisis-mongering, Interlandi warns, can carry risks when a society is already exhausted and nervous: “There is no telling who we might surrender our judgment to or what portion of the social contract we might agree to scrap, if only to silence the alarm bells.” Here’s what we’re focusing on today:
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