We continue to reflect on the Gaylord Anderson Memorial Lecture that Sandro Galea, dean of the Boston University School of Public Health, recently gave at our school. As with all his writing and speaking, Dean Galea engaged us with his intelligence, humor, and rigorous adherence to facts as he reviewed the state of health in the U.S. and our field's response to COVID-19. Although we did a lot of things right during the pandemic, Dean Galea also talked about how we faltered. He offered a better way forward and suggested that as public health professionals, we need:
1. Epistemic humility (to be humble about what we know and don't know)
2. Radical compassion (to understand far better the real burdens people face)
3. Reform through reason (to act boldly to reform the system, but be pragmatic and bring people along, no matter their politics)