But Virchow’s understanding of politics was very particular, as revealedin the second and less well-known part of his statement. After character-izing politics as medicine on a larger scale, Virchow went on to write,‘Medicine as a social science, as the science of human beings, has the obli-gation to point out problems and to attempt their theoretical solution;the politician, the practical anthropologist, must find the means for theiractual solution’ (Aston,2006). For Virchow, indeed for many in publichealth, politics is a practical matter, something that is done by politi-cians, and something that can and should be informed by the insightsof medicine and, by extension, public health sciences such as epidemi-ology. Unfortunately, translating scientific evidence into public policy isa messy business indeed. Moreover, medicine and public health have feweffective tools for systematically understanding the choices governmentsmake, much less the broader complexities of politics.