Throughout this pandemic the boundary between measurement and metric has been cancelled out by an intense and pervasive level of noise. Depending on the day or context, public health officials use cases, hospitalizations, deaths, or vaccination levels. These measurements are of varying levels of usefulness and are all subject to bias in unique ways, but, most importantly, they are just measurements. Public health officials rarely present them with the nuance that measurements require — instead, they use them as metrics when engaging with the general public. Much worse, these measurements are used to shape public policy as if they
You cannot actually measure public health
You cannot actually measure public health
You cannot actually measure public health
Throughout this pandemic the boundary between measurement and metric has been cancelled out by an intense and pervasive level of noise. Depending on the day or context, public health officials use cases, hospitalizations, deaths, or vaccination levels. These measurements are of varying levels of usefulness and are all subject to bias in unique ways, but, most importantly, they are just measurements. Public health officials rarely present them with the nuance that measurements require — instead, they use them as metrics when engaging with the general public. Much worse, these measurements are used to shape public policy as if they