January 21, 2005

The American Medical Association may applaud the Supreme Court's efforts to exclude unsound science from the courtroom (see Jan. 4), but not all medical professionals share its enthusiasm. The American Public Health Association, to name one group, passed a resolution this past fall deploring Daubert and its effects. As Sally Satel has well documented, APHA has long aligned itself with a style of ostensibly progressive politics whose connection to traditional public health concerns can seem tenuous: see this piece (in 2001, by way of example, "the APHA put forth policy resolutions against national missile defense, the war in Southwest Asia, and the General Agreement on Trade in Services") and this one (APHA convention presenters keen on blaming capitalism and social inequality for disease).