Dr. Emily Smith is the Assistant Research Professor of Global Health at Duke University. She is the author of The Science of the Good Samaritan: Thinking Bigger About Loving Our Neighbors
By Craig Nash
It’s easy to forget how little we knew about public health in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The most consequential chapter written about the history of that period will be how we sought to fill that vacuum of knowledge. Some relied on their own intuition, while others looked to the financial markets for guidance on what to do. Bad actors stepped in with unproven and sometimes dangerous “solutions.”
Out of all this emerged The Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist (FNE), Dr. Emily Smith’s project to translate and explain the technical, specialized language Americans were receiving from the nation’s top health experts. At its height, millions of people accessed the FNE blog daily.
Emily, an expert in global health, deftly taught the ins and outs of “flattening the curve,” transmission mitigation, and, eventually, what an mRNA vaccine is. Through all this, she led with her faith in Jesus, calling us to frame all our decisions through the lens of the story of the Good Samaritan. While the messages we were receiving were, “We need to do what is best for our families,” and, “We can’t keep the economy closed forever,” Emily was asking, “Who are our most vulnerable neighbors and how can we best show them love in these dark times?”
Sadly, this didn’t come without a cost. Her efforts to lead with Christian compassion resulted in losing friends and her church community. But her courage empowered others to be courageous, and her compassion offered a faithful witness to the tenderness of God.
—Craig Nash is the senior editor at Good Faith Media.
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