And that's a good thing, because during this period of unending attacks on our public health system, we need a provocative independent voice that will ask the questions that need to be asked. Effect Measure has become an indespensable resource for anyone following pandemic flu issues and the preparations that this country needs to make..
Go read his blogoversary essay. In addition to saying some very nice things about me, he talks about the influential people reading Effect Measure, and why we blog:
The "who is reading" is important to us because it goes to part of what Effect Measure is about. We didn't want to just have a conversation with the blogosphere, although we are delighted one has developed. Our aim was to change the conversation within public health. We didn't think most public health professionals were going to agree with everything we said or even most of it. But we wanted to legitimize saying it, making the topics we brought up and they way we talked about them part of the conversation in public health. It's not just the topics like war and religion that are usually not considered part of public health. It's public health topics that we talk about in a particular way. When we talk about pandemic influenza preparation, for example, we emphasize community mobilization, cooperation and collective action. We're not interested in individual prepping, although we don't say it is unimportant. It's just not on our blog agenda. We also push transparency and honesty and credibility as cardinal virtues of public health practice. All of those things have political correlates and we aren't shy about pointing them out.Amen