To the extent that human-made public, social and health policies and programmes are powerful determinants of health, epidemiology is a social, and inherently political, science.[...]At a minimum, dismissing it as such, naively discounts the huge powers of government to affect the distribution of the social, physical environmental, and life-course determinants of health that ultimately affect the social distribution of infant mortality[...]. 

(Traducción al vuelo ;-))

Because our research topics are intrinsically value-relevant (e.g., reducing health inequalities involves the removal of exclusionary mechanisms that undermine the advantages of the affluent, credentialed, and privileged), it is impossible and even undesirable for public health researchers to remain value-free in the pursuit of social justice in public health. How can we expect to remain objective and apolitical when our profession strives to reduce health inequalities caused by unjust relations? Although it is not possible for public health researchers to remain apolitical, we do have the power to choose which positions to support, the responsibility to conduct high-quality research, and an ethical duty to remain transparent throughout all stages of the research process.

(Traducción al vuelo ;-))