Losing the Public, for Better or for Worse: A Lesson from John Everett Gordon (1890–1983) and John Rodman Paul (1893–1971)

The Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare a tension around scientific expertise that has major implications for the effectiveness of health systems. Critical engagement with this tension, however, is largely missing from the lessons and programs consolidating in the wake of the emergency. Lacking good frameworks for discussing the tension, the vague term “public trust” has proliferated into a buzzword that stands in for more articulate discussion. The tension between experts and the public is not new, however. It is useful to look back to the 1930s, when health experts identifying as “new epidemiologists” imagined a new modern science of epidemiology that, some believed, would resolve evident failures in public cooperation. Historical analysis of different approaches to the production and use of epidemiological knowledge in these years reveals a debate about power at the heart of epidemiology, and a critical framework for discussing the tension around epidemiological expertise in public health.