{"id":55093,"date":"2020-08-27T19:58:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-27T16:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/disease-specialists-are-now-running-for-congress\/"},"modified":"2020-08-27T19:58:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T16:58:00","slug":"disease-specialists-are-now-running-for-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/disease-specialists-are-now-running-for-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"#Disease specialists are now running for Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Disease specialists are now running for Congress<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n BOSTON \u2014 A background in science<\/a> \u2014 specifically, infectious disease and epidemiology \u2014 may not spring to mind as a key selling point for candidates hoping to land a seat in Congress.<\/p>\n

Not unless, say, the country is in the throes of a deadly pandemic.<\/p>\n

Two Democrats in Massachusetts are highlighting their disease expertise as they pitch themselves to voters in the state\u2019s Sept. 1 primaries, while at the same time arguing that their focus on the coronavirus and its social<\/a> fallout also gives them a unique perspective on a host of other issues \u2014 from health care and housing to racial inequality and the environment.<\/p>\n

Natalia Linos is a social epidemiologist and executive director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. She\u2019s also a candidate in the crowded race to replace US Rep. Joe Kennedy III in the state\u2019s 4th Congressional District.<\/p>\n

Kennedy is challenging incumbent US Sen. Edward Markey in the state\u2019s Democratic primary, creating an open race to fill his seat. Linos is one of eight candidates vying for the party\u2019s nomination in the blue-leaning district.<\/p>\n

Linos, who spent a decade working at the United Nations before landing at Harvard, said she hadn\u2019t intended on jumping into the race. Then President Donald Trump announced earlier in the year that he would withdraw the US from the World Health Organization \u2014 a decision Linos said baffled her, coming in the midst of the fight against the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI entered the race because I felt I had a unique skill set for this moment,\u201d Linos said. \u201cIf we had more people in Congress with a science background, we might have made better decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old mother of three has lived off and on in Brookline, a suburb of Boston, for the past seven years. She grew up in Greece and spent much of her life overseas. She said that global perspective has made the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic in the US look even more disapp<\/a>ointing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith a country that is so wealthy with some of the best doctors and nurses, that is unacceptable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The pandemic has exposed other fault lines that already existed in the country, Linos said, including access to health care and housing and a failure to address the environmental challenges facing the nation and the globe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make sure that a lot of money in the federal response is putting us on a green path,\u201d she said of virus relief packages. \u201cThe only silver lining is if the recovery is linked to the Green New Deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other candidates in the Democratic primary for Kennedy\u2019s seat include Jake Auchincloss, Becky Grossman, Alan Khazei, Isshane Lecky, Jesse Mermell, Ben Sigel and Chris Zannetos.<\/p>\n

Two Republicans are also running \u2014 Julie Hall and David Rosa. Both are veterans and face a uphill challenge in a district that has historically supported Democrats.<\/p>\n

Medical backgrounds are also playing a role in other races in the state. Robbie Goldstein, a 36-year-old South Boston resident, is challenging longtime incumbent US Rep. Stephen Lynch in the state\u2019s 8th Congressional District in the Democratic primary.<\/p>\n

As an infectious disease specialist and doctor at Massachusetts General<\/a> Hospital, Goldstein has focused on those living with and at risk for another virus: HIV.<\/p>\n

But when the coronavirus engulfed the state in the spring, Goldstein found himself in the hospital\u2019s intensive care unit caring for patients on ventilators because of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Goldstein said he\u2019s had a front row seat to what he considers the federal government\u2019s disastrous handling of the pandemic. Back in March, he recalled talking with his colleagues about not having enough tests or enough personal protective equipment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are the same questions we are asking now,\u201d he said. \u201cThere should have been a plan for the distribution of PPE, for the equitable distribution of treatments. There is no way to look at the federal response and see anything but failure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goldstein said he was spurred to run after hearing about problems his patients talked to him about that he couldn\u2019t solve as a physician \u2014 from expanding their access to health care to helping them pay the rent.<\/p>\n

Still, he said his job as a doctor remains top of mind for most voters he\u2019s met during the campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t go anywhere in this district and not talk about anything but my experiences as an infectious disease doctor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Goldstein said he also sees himself as part of a wave of younger Democratic candidates trying to push the party toward a more progressive agenda. He said he\u2019s convinced there is a path to victory for a progressive candidate in what\u2019s been seen as a more moderate or conservative Democratic district.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Lynch\u2019s campaign declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Brookline resident Barbara Kamholz, a 48-year-old associate professor of psychiatry at the Boston University School of Medicine, said she\u2019s pleased with the variety of Democratic candidates running to fill Kennedy\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think choice is a great thing,\u201d she said. \u201cI think choice and competition make policy and politics and politicians better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Candidates with medical credentials have run for higher office elsewhere in the 2020 election cycle \u2014 not always succeeding.<\/p>\n

Trauma surgeon Manny Sethi lost this month\u2019s Republican primary for an open US Senate seat in Tennessee. Trump had thrown his support behind Sethi\u2019s opponent, but the doctor also was criticized for not wearing a mask at his events.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Disease specialists are now running for Congress” BOSTON \u2014 A background in science \u2014 specifically, infectious disease and epidemiology \u2014 may not spring to mind as a key selling point for candidates hoping to land a seat in Congress. Not unless, say, the country is in the throes of a deadly pandemic. Two Democrats in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[59841],"class_list":["post-55093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-disease-specialists-are-now-running-for-congress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}