Be Skeptical of ‘Beneficially Coercive’ New Rules for Booze
A new warning from Surgeon General Vivek Murthy that links alcohol to cancer ought to raise questions about the purpose of such public health edicts—especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw a dramatic decline in Americans’ willingness to trust such expertise.
Is the goal of public health to provide scientifically accurate information so Americans can understand the risks and trade-offs that are an inevitable part of life?
Or is the goal to change public behavior to eliminate risk, and to force that change if people are unwilling to go along?
Writing in The New York Times, physician Rachael Bedard argues for the latter. She likens Murthy’s new warning about alcohol to vaccine mandates: A “beneficially coercive” policy that “can evolve over time as people get used to new expectations and restrictions.”
“The way that public health most effectively helps people change their habits is by changing the incentives, pressures, and opportunities in the culture around them,” she writes—as if human beings were wild animals that the state is charged with domesticating, rather than rational actors with free will.
But Bedard is merely stating the quiet part out loud—even as she admits that “a majority of Americans might not be in the mood for the surgeon general’s advice.” Indeed, she also acknowledges that the surgeon general’s report isn’t meant to convince ordinary Americans to change their behavior—like her husband, who apparently rolled his eyes when told about the advisory. Rather, these “recommendations, like the one to change alcohol labeling to highlight cancer risk, are policy ideas.”
In other words, they’re not meant to convince you to do anything differently. They are meant to convince policymakers, who will then make the decision for you.
It’s a safe bet that Americans are in no mood to be scolded by public health officials these days, when the noble lies, shifting science, and officially authorized misinformation from the pandemic is still fresh in mind.
That would be true even if Murthy’s edict was based on sound science.
It’s not. Murthy’s report claims that drinking beer, wine, and liquor is “a
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