Julia Marcus

Any public health plan that requires radical changes in behavior and perfect compliance is doomed to fail, and that's exactly what's happening.

When we have an all-or-nothing approach to prevention, which is what we've been seeing in our public health messaging around the coronavirus, we tend to inadvertently stigmatize anything people do that's not 100 % risk reduction.

Then our public health response ends up breaking down.

Shaming individuals who are at a party or in a park may give us a sense of control in the moment, but it's misplaced energy.