Strategic Science Assignment

John Ruffin, former head of the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities wrote:

"The 19th-century scientist and pathologist Rudolph Virchow gave voice to many of our present-day concerns about disparities and went a long way toward defining the task before us. A socially minded man, he believed that science should speak the language of the common people and that medicine should serve the public's health. He wrote, 'If medicine is to fulfill her greatest task, then she must enter the political and social life…'"

Do you agree and why?  Is it permissible for scientists to become advocates in the areas of their research?  What steps can one take to balance advocacy with the objectivity that is considered the ideal in scientific inquiry?