Dr. Martin Kulldorff

On what is actually the oldest profession. A student once asked the famous anthropologist Margaret Mead a fascinating question: “What is the earliest sign of human civilization we have discovered?” The student expected her to say something like a piece of pottery or perhaps a fragment of a handheld tool. But Mead replied that the first sign of human civilization was a healed femur—a 15,000-year-old human thigh bone. Consider that in a primitive society, a person with a broken leg would have nothing to contribute to the functioning of the community. The injured person was a drain on the collective resources. After the bone was set by someone in the tribe who possessed the requisite skill, and while it slowly healed, the injured person would have to be carried from place to place, fed, sheltered, and tended to for months. And yet this person did live long enough for the broken leg to heal. This means that he was cared for by a knowledgeable healer and supported by his community, even at considerable cost and…

As we look back on the pandemic, there are clear ways in which our public health strategies failed. From the quarantine to vaccines, understanding the pitfalls in our response will enable us to do...