Little can be achieved in the domain of public health without first identifying its goals. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the phrase “following the science” was regularly used by politicians from both the global north and global south in order to justify draconian public health interventions (Stevens 2020). But what, precisely, does “following the science” mean? Applied sciences like public health do not operate in a vacuum. Whereas an epidemiologist might be able to explain and/or describe the distribution and determinants of disease, for example, this alone has no implications on policymaking. Before public health policy is established, policymakers must first agree on the goals of public health interventions. Once these goals have been identified, one can use the sciences (very broadly construed, to include social sciences such as economics, politics, anthropology, sociology and psychology, as well as medicine and epidemiology) to make reasonable predictions regarding how these goals can best be achieved.