Let’s be honest: our trust in public health has seen better days. It’s looking a little… wobbly. Remember COVID? That whole period was a mess of mixed messages, conspiracy theories, and enough online nonsense to make your head spin. It drove a massive wedge between regular folks and the experts, and let’s be real—nobody’s really fixed it yet.
Now, public health has become a political football. And when we start arguing about the basics of keeping people healthy, guess what happens? People get sick. It’s like arguing about whether to use a fire extinguisher while the house is burning down.
The people who get hurt the most are those who were already struggling. But infectious diseases are the ultimate party crashers—they don’t care about your zip code or bank account. They affect everyone.
This is exactly what Dr. Tyler Evans is talking about. He’s a public health doc who’s been on the front lines of global outbreaks and is now the head of the Wellness Equity Alliance. He’s also written a new book, Pandemics, Poverty, and Politics.
We chatted with him about why health got so political, why our current plans are backfiring, and what we should actually be doing. His main point? Pandemics don’t just fall from the sky. A lot of the suffering is totally preventable if we just make smarter choices.
Check out our interview below.
Naomi: In your book, you say millions of people are dying from preventable causes because of bad policies. What kind of policies are we talking about?
Dr. Evans: Oh, they’re baked right into the system. Rules that make it super hard to qualify for Medicaid, laws that treat being homeless like a crime, underfunding clinics in poor neighborhoods… it all adds up. When we decide a budget line is more important than a human life, people die. It’s that simple.
Naomi: Why did public health become such a political nightmare?
Dr. Evans: Science keeps bumping into politics and politics keeps winning. Health advice touches on everything from vaccines to the environment to your wallet. That steps on a lot of toes. Instead of seeing public health as our shared playbook for not getting sick, some leaders treat it like a debate stage.
Naomi: How did COVID change the way we listen to health advice?
Dr. Evans: COVID brought public health into everyone’s living room. The problem was, the message got lost in the noise of a million different news channels and social media feeds. People started picking a side based on their politics, not the science. Now the big question is: will anyone listen next time?
Naomi: What’s the deal with misinformation? Why is it so powerful?
Dr. Evans: It’s not just annoying, it’s a super-virus. Bad info spreads faster than the truth and it feels truer. In communities that have been ignored or mistreated by the system for years, that bad info finds a welcome home. It confirms their fears and makes it impossible for real experts to be heard.
Naomi: You connect poverty and bad health outcomes. How do current policies make this worse?
Dr. Evans: Being poor makes every health risk scarier. If a policy cuts funding for vaccines, weakens clean air rules, or makes it harder to get help, it hits low-income communities hardest. They’re already dealing with more health problems. It’s like kicking someone while they’re down.
Naomi: You say investing in health for everyone just makes sense. So… why don’t we do it?
Dr. Evans: Because we’re obsessed with short-term wins! The health department doesn’t have a bunch of high-paid lobbyists. Big corporations do. So decisions get made to win the next election or please shareholders, not to keep people healthy fifty years from now. It’s incredibly short-sighted.
Naomi: Why are people still skeptical of things that could save kids’ lives?
Dr. Evans: Trust has to be earned, and in many places, the health system hasn’t earned it. If your only experience with public health is being ignored or mistreated, you’re not going to believe them when they show up with a new miracle drug. Facts don’t build trust. Relationships do.
Naomi: What’s your biggest worry about this loss of trust?
Dr. Evans: I worry we’ll backslide on diseases we thought we beat, like measles. The next outbreak could be way worse, not because we don’t have the medicine, but because people won’t take it. That makes everything deadlier and more expensive.
Naomi: What’s one policy you’d love to see happen?
Dr. Evans: Easy. Universal access to basic and preventive care for everyone. No ifs, ands, or buts about insurance or immigration status. Bring care to people where they are: schools, community centers, anywhere. It’s totally doable, it saves money, and it would completely change the country’s health.
Naomi: Why did you feel you had to write this book?
Dr. Evans: Because I’ve seen the same story in every disaster zone, homeless camp, and rural clinic: people are suffering and dying from causes we could have prevented. Pandemics don’t come out of nowhere. They’re the direct result of the choices we make and the inequalities we ignore. The good news? Since we made the problem, we can also fix it.
The bottom line from Dr. Evans? Pandemics aren’t acts of god—they’re acts of policy. His book is both a giant alarm clock and a guidebook for building a healthier, fairer future. If we want that future, we’ve got to get to work.
Naomi Eaton
